TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS

2016 Report of the Joint Media Project

The news articles, analyses and opinions in this report were published on line between April 2015 and March 2016.

These can be accessed freely on: www.nuclearabolition.info. Copyright © IPS-Inter Press Service Japan

Publisher: Global Cooperation Council IPS-Inter Press Service Germany’s umbrella Organization Marienstr. 19-20 D - 10117 Berlin Global Coordinator | Editor-in-Charge: Ramesh Jaura Project Director: Katsuhiro Asagiri President IPS Japan Ichimura Bldg. 4F, 3-2 Kanda Ogawa-cho, Chiyoda-ku Tokyo 101-0052 | Japan

Design: Kaho Okuda

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HIROTSUGU TERASAKI Vice President, Soka Gakkai, Executive Director For Peace Affairs, Soka Gakkai International

As observed by various international efforts for peace and nuclear disarmament, last year marked the seventieth anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The international community is now entering a new phase of concrete discussions focused on the entire elimination of all nuclear weapons. At this time many countries are calling for the negotiation of a new nuclear weapons prohibition treaty to form the first step toward elimination of all such weapons. Nuclear-weapon states and their allies assert that such negotiation would be premature insisting that current security concerns legitimize their stance. They argue that while nuclear weapons exist, they have no choice but to maintain their own nuclear deterrents. The Open-ended Working Group taking forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations convened in February, May and August 2016 at the United Nations Office at Geneva. During the second session of the Open-ended Working Group held in May, the SGI submitted a working paper titled “Nuclear weapons and human security” which emphasized that “the challenge of nuclear disarmament is not something that concerns only the nuclear-weapon States; it must be a truly global enterprise involving all States and fully engaging civil society. All States have an obligation to promote and participate in good faith negotiations for disarmament, bringing them to a successful conclusion.” As Buddhists we uphold the inherent value and dignity of life, the aforementioned working paper states “at the heart of the nuclear weapons issues is the radical negation of others,” and urges “this can only be countered through a sustained effort to expand our individual and shared capacities for imaginative empathy.” This working paper has been recorded as UN document A/AC.286/NGO/17. Together with other faith groups, the SGI issued a joint statement calling for urgent action for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. During the Open-ended Working Group session we asserted that starting the negotiation of a legal framework prohibiting nuclear weapons is both timely and necessary. In his 2009 proposal “Building Global Solidarity Toward Nuclear Abolition,” Daisaku Ikeda, president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), observed: “If nuclear weapons epitomize the forces that would divide and destroy the world, they can only be overcome by the solidarity of ordinary citizens, which transforms hope into the energy to create a new era.” Faced with the daunting challenges before us, we stand at an important juncture in history. Calls for the legal prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons as a first step toward a world finally and permanently free from nuclear weapons are mounting. The SGI will continue striving to strengthen and expand citizens’ solidarity, increasing the momentum that will lead to a world free from nuclear weapons. DAVID KRIEGER President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org). The most stunning truth about the Nuclear Age is this: Nuclear weapons are capable of destroying civilization and most complex life on the planet and very little is being done to remedy this overriding danger. Humanity is experiencing the “frog’s malaise.” It is as though the human species has been placed into a pot of tepid water and is content to calmly sit there while the temperature rises to the boiling point. There is virtually no political will on the part of national leaders to alter this dangerous situation and, despite legal obligations to negotiate in good faith for an end to the nuclear arms race and for nuclear disarmament, there is no major effort among the nuclear-armed countries to achieve nuclear zero. Sadly, while the non-nuclear weapon states are meeting to discuss filling the legal gap to ban and eliminate nuclear weapons, those countries that possess the weapons are purposefully absent from the discussions. Each of the nine nuclear-armed countries is not only boycotting international discussions on banning and eliminating nuclear weapons. Each of these nine countries is in the process of modernizing its nuclear arsenal, wasting valuable resources on weapons that must never be used and doing so while basic human needs for billions of people go unmet and unattended. Despite this unjust and deplorable situation, most of the seven billion people on the planet are complacent about nuclear weapons. This only adds fuel to the fire under the frogs. In the Nuclear Age, humanity is challenged as never before. Our technology, and particularly our nuclear weapons, can destroy us. But before we can respond to the profound dangers, we must first awaken to these dangers. Complacency is a recipe for disaster. I find complacency to be rooted in ACID, an acronym for Apathy, Conformity, Ignorance and Denial. If we want to prevail over our technologies we must move from Apathy to Empathy; from Conformity to Critical Thinking; from Ignorance to Wisdom; and from Denial to Recognition of the danger. But how are we to do this? The key is education – education that promotes engagement; education that forces individuals and nations to face the truth about the dangers of the Nuclear Age. Education can take many forms, but it must begin with solid analysis of current dangers and critiques of the lack of progress in stemming the dangers of the Nuclear Age. We need education that is rooted in the common good. We need education that provides a platform for the voices of the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We need education that makes clear the instability and theoretical nature of nuclear deterrence. We need education that challenges the extreme hubris of leaders who believe the global nuclear status quo can survive human fallibility and malevolence. We need education that can break through the bonds of nuclear insanity and move the world to action for nuclear zero. With regard to such education on nuclear dangers, I applaud the work of the International Peace Syndicate’s flagship agency IDN-InDepthNews and its partners, with valuable support from Soka Gakkai International. Their goal is to educate for a nuclear weapons- Image credit: Michael Day CC 2.0 free world. May they continue to be a strong voice for sanity in a world deeply in need of what they have to offer.

Contents

Nuclear Weapons Challenge the World’s Highest Court By Ramesh Jaura 08 Japan and Kazakhstan Campaign for Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty By Ramesh Jaura 10 New Study Says Next Generation Remains Oblivious To Nuclear Dangers By Rodney Reynolds 12 Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons High on UN Agenda in 2016 By Jamshed Baruah 14 World’s Major Powers, in ‘Shameful Behaviour’, Opt out of Nuclear Resolution By Rodney Reynolds 16 Nuclear-Weapons-Free Africa Keen To Harness Atomic Energy By Jeffrey Moyo 18 UN Plans New Working Groups Aimed at Nuclear Disarmament By Thalif Deen 20 Australia Under Heavy Criticism For Nuclear Agreement with India By Neena Bhandari 22 Saudi Nuclear Blustering Remains Hollow – for Now By Emad Mekay 24 International Partnership Updates on Nuclear Disarmament Verification By Fabíola Ortiz 26 EU Gives Additional Funds to Promote Entry into Force of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty By Jaya Ramachandran 28 Nuke Disarmament Groups Ask Obama and Putin to ‘Reduce Nuclear Risks By Ramesh Jaura 30 Kazakh and Japan Go ‘Aggressive’ for Entry into Force of Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty By Fabiola Ort 32 U.S. 100th Member State to Join Nuke Terrorism Treaty By Thalif Deen 34 Japan and Kazakh to Facilitate Entry into Force of Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty By Kanya D’Almeida 36 Nuke Test Ban Treaty Still in Limbo, U.N. Complains By Thalif Deen 38 Opinion: Can Nuclear War be Avoided? By Gunnar Westberg 39 Opinion: Campaign to End Nuclear Tests - Kazakhstan Launches ATOM By Kairat Abdrakhmano 40 Opinion: Nuclear States Do Not Comply with the Non-Proliferation Treaty By Farhang Jahanpour 42 ‘Generation of Change’ Pleads for Walking the Nuclear Abolition Talk By Ronald Joshua 44 Disarmament Conference Ends with Ambitious Goal – But How to Get There? By Ramesh Jaura 46 Call for Global Ban on Nuclear Weapons Testing By Katsuhiro Asagiri and Ramesh Jaura 48

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Mayors Plead for a Nuclear Weapons Free World By Ramesh Jaura 50 Learning from Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings By Katsuhiro Asagiri 52 No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis, Vows U.N. Chief By Thalif Deen 54 Pacific Island Countries Want a World Without Nuclear Weapons By Neena Bhandari 56 Security Council Defies U.S. Lawmakers by Voting on Iran Nuke Deal By Thalif Deen 58 The Myths About the Nuclear Deal With Iran By Thalif Deen 60 Perfecting Detection of the Bomb By Ramesh Jaura 62 CTBTO, the Nuclear Watchdog That Never Sleeps By Thalif Deen 64 World’s Nuke Arsenal Declines Haltingly While Modernisation Rises Rapidly By Thalif Deen 66 Nuclear Weapons Free World No Lost Cause By Jamshed Baruah 68 Failure of Review Conference Brings World Close to Nuclear Cataclysm, Warn Activists By Thalif Deen 70 Opinion: Universalisation and Strengthening Nuke Treaty Review Need to be Qualitative By Ambassador A. L. A. Azeez 72 Q&A: Nuclear Disarmament a Non-Starter, “But I Would Love to Be Proven Wrong” By Thalif Deen 73 Faith-Based Organisations Warn of Impending Nuclear Disaster By Thalif Deen 74 Q&A: Comprehensive Ban on Nuclear Testing, a ‘Stepping Stone’ to a Nuke-Free World By Kanya d'Almeida 76 Nuclear Testing Legacy Haunts Pacific Island Countries By Shailendra Singh 78 No Signs Yet Of Mass Destruction Weapon-Free Middle East By Ramesh Jaura 80 Opinion: Shared Action for a Nuclear Weapon Free World By Daisaku Ikeda 81 U.N. Warns of Growing Divide Between Nuclear Haves and Have-Nots By Thalif Deen 82 Mixed Middle East Reaction to Iran Nuclear Deal By Mel Fryberg 84 Obama Prepares for Showdown with Congress Over Iran Deal By Jasmin Ramsey 86

Nuclear Weapons Challenge the World’s Highest Court

By Ramesh Jaura devastation and know with conviction that nuclear Pakistan, which had duly participated in the written weapons must never again be visited upon humanity. proceedings, informed the Court that it would not BERLIN | THE HAGUE (IDN) - After ten days of public Nuclear weapons are a senseless threat to survival and participate in the hearings, because, in particular, it hearings involving teams of eminent international there are basic norms that compel those who possess “[did] not feel that [such] participation [would] add lawyers – some backed by staunch proponents of them to pursue and achieve their elimination.” anything to what ha[d] already been submitted through ‘nuclear zero’ and others clinging to the doctrine of The RMI is home to the Bikini Atoll nuclear testing its Counter-Memorial” – responding to the Marshall ‘nuclear deterrence’ – the world’s highest court is faced grounds. Along with Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, Islands charges. with a challenging task of far-reaching significance. which suffered atomic bombings in 1945, the RMI is Subsequently, though only India and the United Not the least because this year marks the twentieth one among few non-nuclear-armed states in the world Kingdom took part in the oral public hearings, all three anniversaries of the 1996 ‘advisory opinion’ by the to see the devastation caused by nuclear weapons at strongly object to the “admissibility and jurisdiction” of International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the opening for close range. the ICJ in the case filed by the RMI. signature of the CTBT, the treaty banning all nuclear The U.S. carried out 67 nuclear explosive tests UK argues that in common with the other NPT parties, tests everywhere – nuclear tests that are at the heart of between 1946 and 1958, including the infamous Castle it acknowledges its obligation under Article VI of the nuclear proliferation. Bravo test, which, at 15 megatons, involved the most treaty and work towards disarmament. India insists that Explaining the core subject for ICJ’s deliberation, a powerful U.S. nuclear device ever to see atmospheric the NPT is discriminatory, de facto allowing the P5 famous Dutch lawyer Phon van den Biesen said, “from a testing. modernize their nuclear weapons. legal perspective”, the issues presented by the three According to reports, the size of the Castle Bravo test Phon van den Biesen, Co-Agent for the RMI and legal cases “are ordinary ones, but a positive outcome on March 1, 1954 far exceeded expectations, causing attorney at law in Amsterdam, who was leading the will, spectacularly, change the world”. widespread radioactive contamination. The fallout Marshall Islands’ international Legal Team, said: “We This is because there are more than 15,000 nuclear spread traces of radioactive material as far as Australia, are, basically, asking the Court to tell the respondent weapons in the world today. “Their use could render India and Japan, and even the United States and parts states (India, Pakistan and the United Kingdom) to live meaningless in an instant all of humankind's efforts to of Europe. Though organized as a secret test, Castle up to their obligations under international law.” resolve global problems,” warns Buddhist philosopher, Bravo quickly became an international incident, In particular, the RMI is asking the ICJ to follow up on educator, author, and anti-nuclear activist, Daisaku prompting calls for a ban on the atmospheric testing of its earlier findings in the Advisory Opinion it delivered in Ikeda. He is President of the Tokyo-based lay Buddhist thermonuclear devices. 1996 on the illegality of the threat or use of nuclear organisation Soka Gakkai International (SGI). The RMI claims that the nuclear-armed nations are in weapons. At the time the Court considered that the In his 2016 annual Peace Proposal, Ikeda declared: “If breach of nuclear disarmament obligations under continued international debate on the legality of these nuclear weapons were to be used in a hostile exchange existing international law. This applies to the P5 deadly weapons threatens the stability of the interna- in any corner of the world, the impact – whether in (permanent members of the UN Security Council: U.S., tional order. terms of the number of lives lost or the number of Russia, UK, France and China) that are signatories to It added that “the long-promised complete nuclear people who would suffer aftereffects – staggers the the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as well as to disarmament appears to be the most appropriate imagination.” the four non-NPT signatories (Israel, India, Pakistan and means” to put an end to that untenable situation. In fact, recent research warns of the devastating North Korea) under customary international law. (para. 98, http://www.icj- impact of even a geographically limited nuclear Accordingly, the Marshall Islands had filed lawsuits cij.org/docket/files/95/7495.pdf) exchange on the global ecology; the impact on the against all nine nuclear weapons countries in April The minimum the international lawyers supporting the world's climate would undermine food production, 2014. But the U.S., Russia, China, France, Israel and RMI expect of the ICJ is to reiterate the ICJ’s 1996 resulting in a "nuclear famine". North Korea do not accept the “compulsory jurisdic- advisory opinion: “There exists an obligation to pursue Explaining the motivation of the Pacific Republic of the tion” of the ICJ and ignored the cases brought against in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations Marshall Islands (RMI) to turn to the International Court them. Only India, Pakistan and UK accepted. leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects under of Justice (ICJ), former Foreign Minister Tony de Brum Prior to the start of the oral proceedings on March 8, strict and effective international control.” said: “I have seen with my very own eyes nuclear

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 8 Photo: Nuclear weapon test Bravo (yield 15 Mt) on Bikini Atoll. The test was part of the Opera- tion Castle. The Bravo event was an experimen- tal thermonuclear device surface event. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

In his 2009 five-point proposal, UN Secretary-General on jurisdiction and admissibility issues raised in the awareness about nuclear weapons and the conse- Ban Ki-moon also urged “all NPT parties, in particular written and oral pleadings, is far from certain. quences of their use . . . Access to knowledge empow- the nuclear-weapon-states, to fulfil their obligation Concluding public hearings – comprising rather ers people to work more effectively for a world without under the treaty to undertake negotiations on effective complicated legal aspects and profound political nuclear weapons. Ultimately, we need to see that our measures leading to nuclear disarmament”. implications – on the question of jurisdiction, the choice is between systems of national security pre- The public hearings at the ICJ were preceded by the United Nations’ principal judicial organ ICJ announced mised on the suffering and sacrifice of ordinary citizens Open Ended Working Group’s first meeting in February on March 16: “The Court’s judgment on the question of and ways of thinking and acting that prioritize human 22-26 in Geneva, which did not succeed in breaking the jurisdiction will be delivered at a public sitting, the date security." stalemate on nuclear weapons disarmament. The next of which will be announced in due course.” [IDN-InDepthNews – 17 March 2016] two sessions are scheduled for May and August. A close observer of the ICJ public hearings, Kazuo Whether the 15 ICJ judges, along with judge-ad-hoc Ishiwatari, Vice Executive Director of the Peace and Mohammed Bedjaoui, would by then have deliberated Global Issues at SGI said: "We need to raise public

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 9 Japan and Kazakhstan Campaign for Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

By Ramesh Jaura Ministerial-level Conference on Facilitating the Entry While the heads of two countries committed to a VIENNA | TOKYO (IDN) - As the Comprehensive into force of the Treaty on September 29, 2015. world free of nuclear weapons are undertaking neces- Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) prepares Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Prime sary political steps, eminent Buddhist philosopher and to convene a ministerial meeting in June, Kazakhstan Miniser Shinzo Abe of Japan reiterated in a statement peace-builder Daisaku Ikeda has expressed his fervent and Japan have reaffirmed their commitment to issued on October 27, 2015 in Astana the reasons support for entry into force of the CTBT that has been intensify their efforts toward entry into force of the behind their commitment to the Comprehensive in limbo for 20 years. Treaty. Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) becoming a law. In his annual peace proposal, titled ‘Universal Respect During the first week of the symposium ‘Science and “As countries which experienced and are fully aware for Human Dignity: The Great Path to Peace’, Ikeda who Diplomacy for Peace and Security’ from January 25 to of the threat of nuclear weapons. Kazakhstan and Japan is president of the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) February 4, representatives of the two countries in share the moral authority and responsibility to raise the Buddhist association, urges “the remaining eight states Vienna assured that they would set forth their efforts awareness of the people throughout the world about to ratify the CTBT as soon as possible in order to initiated by their respective foreign ministers in Sep- the humanitarian catastrophes nuclear weapons have enhance its effectiveness and ensure that nuclear tember 2015 at the United Nations headquarters in brought about. With this special mission in mind, weapons are never again tested on our planet”. New York. Kazakhstan and Japan are determined to work together The eight countries include China, Egypt, Iran, Israel Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and his Kazakh closely pursuing a world free of nuclear weapons,” a and the U.S., which have signed the Treaty, and North counterpart Erlan Idrissov co-chaired the 9th joint statement said. Korea, India and Pakistan that have until now refused to put their signature on the CTBT.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 10 Altogether 183 member states of the United Nations collapse of ice shelves. The system has been compared eliminate the risk of accidental, mistaken, unauthorized have signed the Treaty and 164 have ratified. But it will to a giant Earth stethoscope.” or intentional nuclear weapon detonations; and enter into force only when 44 countries complete their Ikeda agrees with the UN Secretary-General Ban additional measures to increase awareness and under- ratification procedures. Ki-moon that even before entering into force, the CTBT standing of the complexity of and interrelationship “We must of course accelerate efforts toward nuclear is saving lives. “Indeed the Treaty and its verification between the wide range of humanitarian consequences disarmament and abolition. At the same time, we must regime, originally designed to restrain the nuclear arms that would result from any nuclear detonation. further develop the kind of activities that have grown race and nuclear proliferation, have become essential According to UNFOLD ZERO, support for the OEWG is from the CTBT in order to build momentum toward a humanitarian safeguards, protecting the lives of large also growing in parliaments and amongst civil society world that gives highest priority to humanitarian numbers of people,” says the Buddhist philosopher, globally. UNFOLD ZERO is a new platform for United objectives,” says the Tokyo-based SGI’s president in the author and peace-builder. Nations focused initiatives and actions for the achieve- proposal issued on January 26. As CTBTO experts explained to IDN in Vienna, the ment of a nuclear weapons free world. As the humanitarian impact and the limited military global monitoring stations send gigabytes of data to the Mayors for Peace, an organization of over 6,800 cities, effectiveness of nuclear weapons have become more International Data Centre (IDC) at the CTBTO's head- has sent an open letter to the OEWG urging all States – apparent, so has the fact that they are essentially quarters in Vienna. The data are processed and distrib- especially those possessing nuclear weapons and their unusable, says the SGI president. “Having reached the uted to the CTBTO's Member States in both raw and umbrella states – to engage in constructive delibera- limits of military competition, we can now see signs of analyzed form. tions in the OEWG in order to pave the way for a the emergence of a new mode of international compe- Before taking up the post as the CTBTO’s Executive nuclear-weapon-free world. tition, one centered around mutual striving toward Secretary in August 2013, Lassina Zerbo served as the People for Nuclear Disarmament and the Human humanitarian objectives.” IDC Director. He has been instrumental in cementing Survival Project have sent a Memo to Governments One example of this, adds Ikeda, can be found in the the CTBTO’s position as the world’s centre of excel- Participating in the OEWG highlighting the humanitar- various contributions made by the International lence for nuclear test-ban verification, as well as in ian and security imperative to immediately reduce Monitoring System (IMS), which was established with driving forward efforts towards the entry into force and nuclear risks and to take concurrent steps to prohibit the adoption of the CTBT in 1996. The CTBT has yet to universalization of the CTBT. and eliminate the weapons. The memo explores various enter into force, but the IMS, launched by the CTBTO Ikeda also offers proposals for the new Open-ended options to abolish nuclear weapons, including a nuclear Preparatory Commission to detect any nuclear explo- Working Group (OEWG) set up by the UN General weapons convention, ban treaty and/or a 'building sion worldwide, is already in operation, notes Ikeda. Assembly to address concrete legal measures toward blocks' approach. The IMS is an important pillar of a unique and compre- prohibition of nuclear weapons. The Group is preparing According to the Memo, it is possible that no one, hensive verification regime to make sure that no substantive sessions to work on the legal measures and single, approach will do the trick, and that momentum nuclear explosion goes undetected. The IMS will, when norms to achieve a nuclear-weapon-free world. It will built up by one approach may facilitate progress with complete, consist of 337 facilities worldwide to monitor also make recommendations on interim nuclear another, different approach. the planet for signs of nuclear explosions. Around 90 risk-reduction measures. Ikeda also cites hopeful developments, including the percent of the facilities are already up and running. 85 countries and some civil society organizations fact that over 120 states have endorsed the Humanitar- The SGI president lauds the IMS: “Its core function was participated in an informal session of the OEWG on ian Pledge, a commitment to “stigmatize, prohibit and again demonstrated in the rapid detection of the January 28. Ambassador Thani Thongphakdi of Thai- eliminate nuclear weapons,” and growing calls for the seismic waves and radiation from the recent (January 6) land was named as the OEWG Chair, and aprovisional abolition of nuclear weapons from civil society. He North Korean nuclear test. In addition, the global IMS OEWG agenda was distributed. highlights efforts involving faith-based organizations network has been used to gather data about natural It envisages (a) concrete effective legal measures, legal and youth that the SGI has supported, including the disasters and the impact of climate change.” provisions and norms that will need to be concluded to International Youth Summit for Nuclear Abolition held He adds: “Examples of this include: providing informa- attain and maintain a world without nuclear weapons; in Hiroshima in August 2015. tion on undersea earthquakes to tsunami early-warning and (b) recommendations on other measures that [IDN-InDepthNews – 1 February 2016] centers; real- time surveillance of volcanic eruptions to could contribute to taking forward multilateral nuclear Photo: Panel discussion on Roles, Responsibilities and enable civil aviation authorities to issue timely warn- disarmament negotiations, including but not limited to: Challenges Maintaining the IMS Verification System ings; and tracking large-scale weather events and the Transparency measures related to the risks associated Credit: CTBTO with existing nuclear weapons; measures to reduce and

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 11 New Study Says Next Generation Remains Oblivious To Nuclear Dangers

By Rodney Reynolds UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – For over 70 years since the disastrous bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, peace activists have continued their relentless global campaign for a world without nuclear weapons. The United Nations, which has remained engaged in a longstanding debate, continues to adopt scores of resolutions every year on nuclear disarmament. And in December, not surprisingly, the 193-member General Assembly wrapped up its 2015 sessions adopting 57 draft resolutions on arms control and disarmament – 23 of which were on nuclear weapons. Still the goal of a nuclear-free world is a distance political mirage – at least for the present generation. A new study released last week by the British Ameri- can Security Information Council (BASIC), a Washington-based think tank, has attempted to reframe the narrative on nuclear weapons. How is nuclear disarmament being viewed by the next generation of policy makers who will inherit thousands of nuclear weapons – particularly when the policy on nuclear weapons is all-too-often constrained by the legacy of past generations? The study, which sums up the findings from a 14- month long project, is expected “to serve as a point of departure in developing innovative ideas and engaging more people within the next generation of policy shapers in the interests of furthering nuclear non- proliferation and disarmament.” “Innovative thinking is needed to overcome deeply entrenched attitudes and slow progress in the shared responsibility to strengthen nuclear non-proliferation measures and achieve global security through nuclear disarmament,” the Report argues. The project explored three questions: First, what are

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 12 the biggest influences in the cycle of nuclear weapons nuclear weapons and thousands of tonnes of nuclear Security Policy Coordination Office at the International decision-making and where might we be able to shift weapon-usable materials, he noted. Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. the conversation? Rauf said one significant finding of the Report is that The methods used in the BASIC project included the Second, where and how might the nuclear debate be the younger people in the UK and the U.S. are not participation of focus groups; roundtable events and more closely integrated with other policy issues and overly concerned by the nuclear weapons of their expert dialogues; polling of European youth aged 14-30 movements that attract attention? respective countries, but are worried about further about their attitudes towards nuclear weapons; digital Third, how and why might nuclear weapons issues nuclear proliferation and to terrorist groups. engagement; and face-to-face networking with mem- resonate more strongly with emerging policy makers, “This new generation is blissfully unaware and thus bers of the next generation. the public and media? unconcerned about nuclear weapon arsenals – as Some of the important findings of the study include: The study was the result of a series of workshops in nuclear weapons have no relevance to their make- nuclear weapons are not seen as strongly relevant to the U.S. and UK with next generation participants believe worlds of Twitter or Facebook – but they will be the (U.S./UK) next generation – except in terms of an aimed at mapping the challenges, mechanisms for in for a rude awakening, should unfortunately, a uncertain future caused by the leakage of nuclear engagement, potential new dimensions in the debate nuclear detonation occur whether by accident or by weapons to revisionist states and non-state actors. and its relationship to other issues, including the non-Sate actor actions,” said Rauf, a former Senior “Not only are they out of sight and mind, divorced relationships between nuclear weapons and climate Adviser to the chair of the 2014 Preparatory Committee from human interest stories, difficult to relate to change. for the 2015 Review Conference on the Non- every-day experience but also they are not seen as When the issue comes out in the public, it rarely Proliferation Treaty (NPT). particularly influential even in the political and military involves considered arguments, but rather features as a He also pointed out that whatever little discourse spheres.” shallow, symbolic proxy to label particular positions as there is on nuclear weapons in the mainstream media, When previous generations would have attached great naïve or hawkish. is driven by fear mongering about adversaries but utility and fear to these weapons -- establishing elabo- The study calls for new voices into the discussion, and ignores the nuclear weapons, policies and spending at rate deterrence relationships based on fear -- the next test out the means to inspire the next generation of home. generation sees them as largely irrelevant to outcomes, policy makers. An important recommendation of the Report is to the study concludes. Tariq Rauf, Director, Disarmament, Arms Control and bring education and information about nuclear weap- [IDN-InDepthNews – 19 January 2016] Non-Proliferation Programme at the Stockholm Interna- ons early in the education of youngsters, starting in Image credit: BASIC tional Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told IDN the school, he added. BASIC Report highlights how thinking and discourse on In this regard, said Rauf, it is useful to pay attention to nuclear weapons have morphed into the mundane over the views of those with firsthand experience with the years, and has fallen off the list of principal dangers nuclear weapons policy, such as William J. Perry, to the world. former US Defence Secretary, as recounted in his Driven by the need to go beyond the deeply recent memoir, “My Journey at the Nuclear Brink”, and entrenched attitudes and stasis in achieving global movies such as “Dr Strangelove”, “Fail Safe” and “The security through nuclear disarmament, the Report was Man Who Saved the World”. motivated by trying to make future nuclear weapons “The BASIC Report is an important contribution to policy more relevant to the security and concerns of finding ways to engage the new generation on issues of the next generation that will inherit thousands of nuclear weapons and existential global security,” said Rauf, a former head (2002-2011) of the Verification and

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 13 Treaty to Ban Nuclear Weapons High on UN Agenda in 2016

By Jamshed Baruah “(a) Transparency measures related to the risks regime”, they argued, but did not explain how, said BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) - An open-ended working associated with existing nuclear weapons; ICAN. group of the United Nations General Assembly for “(b) Measures to reduce and eliminate the risk of They could have supported an “appropriately man- achieving a nuclear-weapon-free world is, along with accidental, mistaken, unauthorized or intentional dated” working group bound by strict consensus rules, the Sustainable Development Goals, an important nuclear weapon detonations; and they said. However, such an arrangement would have agenda item that the year 2015 has bequeathed to “(c) Additional measures to increase awareness and allowed them, collectively or individually, to block all 2016. understanding of the complexity of and interrelation- proposed actions and decisions, including the appoint- The General Assembly also adopted a number of other ship between the wide range of humanitarian conse- ment of a chair and adoption of an agenda. The important resolutions: 139 nations pledged “to fill the quences that would result from any nuclear detona- Mexican approach of giving greater control to nuclear- legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear tion.” free nations is “divisive”, they criticized. weapons”. 144 countries declared that it was in the Dates have yet to be set. But the working group will Among the countries that abstained from voting on interests of humanity that nuclear weapons are never meet in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2016 for up to 15 days. the resolution was Germany, which hosts U.S. nuclear used again “under any circumstances”. 132 states In the interests of achieving real progress, the working weapons on its territory, stating that the working group described nuclear weapons as “inherently immoral”. group will not be bound by strict consensus rules. It will is not “inclusive” – in spite of the fact that the UN The General Assembly voted on December 7 to set up submit a report to the General Assembly next October encourages participation of all nations. Japan and a working group that will draft “legal measures, legal on its substantive work and agreed recommendations. Australia, which believe it is acceptable to use nuclear provisions and norms” for achieving a world without International organizations and civil society organiza- weapons in certain circumstances, also abstained, nuclear weapons. This new UN body – which has the tions, including the International Campaign to Abolish offering vague explanations. backing of 138 nations – is widely expected to focus its Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) are also invited to participate. India and Pakistan, which reportedly possess nuclear efforts on devising the elements for a treaty prohibiting “It is time to begin the serious practical work of devel- weapons, argued that the working group would nuclear weapons outright. oping the elements for a treaty banning nuclear threaten the Conference on Disarmament (CD) – a The creation of a working group was recommended in weapons,” said Beatrice Fihn, executive director of Geneva-based forum established in 1979 as the single the draft final document from the nuclear Nonprolifera- ICAN. “The overwhelming majority of nations support multilateral disarmament negotiating forum of the tion Treaty (NPT) review conference that ended on May this course of action.” international community, as a result of the first Special 22, 2015. As the Arms Control Association pointed out, The Mexican-sponsored resolution that set up the Session on Disarmament of the United Nations General the proposal grew out of the frustration of many states working group acknowledges in preamble to the Assembly in 1978. with the lack of progress on nuclear disarmament. resolution “the absence of concrete outcomes of The CD, which has been stuck up for nearly two According to the NPT document, the purpose of the multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations within decades, excludes two-thirds of the world’s nations working group would be “to identify effective measures the UN framework for almost two decades”. It adds from its deliberations (mostly developing nations). It for the full implementation of Article VI” of the NPT, that the “current international climate” – of increased will hold the first of three sessions in 2016 from January “including legal provisions or other arrangements,” and tensions among nuclear-armed nations – made the 25 to April 1, 2016. to do so on the basis of consensus. Under Article VI, the elimination of nuclear weapons “all the more urgent”. According to ICAN, the UN General Assembly’s vote on treaty parties are to “pursue negotiations in good faith The five permanent members of the UN Security a resolution setting up a working group comes in the on effective measures relating to the cessation of the Council, who comprise the nine nuclear-armed nations aftermath of the success of the three major confer- arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarma- – China, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States ences on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons ment”. and France – are opposed to the creation of the in 2013 and 2014. According to the UN, the working group shall also working group. “These have resulted in a growing expectation among “substantively address recommendations on other They issued a joint statement in November explaining governments and civil society that negotiations on a measures that could contribute to taking forward their view. “An instrument such as a ban” would treaty banning nuclear weapons should now begin. The multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations, includ- “undermine the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) failure of the NPT review conference this May further ing but not limited to:

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 14 underscored the need for real action,” commented nations will continue to oppose this course of action. [IDN-InDepthNews – 28 December 2015] ICAN. But that must not prevent us from moving forward. We Image: UN Office Geneva “We cannot delay indefinitely the prohibition of a have outlawed other indiscriminate, inhumane weap- weapon that is patently unacceptable on humanitarian ons. Now we must outlaw the very worst weapons of grounds,” said ICAN’s Fihn. “We expect that certain all.”

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 15 World’s Major Powers, in ‘Shameful Behaviour’, Opt out of Nuclear Resolution

The speculation at the UN is that the abstentions were triggered largely by the fact that the resolution included the term hibakushas, or survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 years ago, underlying the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. The resolution was adopted on November 2 by a vote of 156 to 3, with 17 abstentions. The three negative votes came from Russia and China, the other two major nuclear powers, plus North Korea. Dr M.V. Ramana, a physicist and lecturer at Princeton University’s Programme on Science and Global Security and the Nuclear Futures Laboratory, said: “I think this is shameful behavior on the part of the nuclear weapon states, if they cannot even support a resolution calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons because it men- tions the humanitarian impacts of nuclear weapon use.” The horrendous effects of a nuclear explosion are well known, and the reluctance of the nuclear weapon states to countenance that reality can only mean that they have dealt so long with nuclear weapons in the By Rodney Reynolds abstract that any discussion of what these weapons do is unpalatable to them, he added. UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – When the world’s major This year there was one significant exception: the U.S., Britain and France, three of the world’s major nuclear “Military planners and diplomats must be constantly nuclear powers express their support for nuclear reminded by civil society and activists that what they disarmament, their political rhetoric usually fails to powers, opted to abstain on a resolution, spearheaded by Japan every year, on united action towards the total are dealing with are instruments of mass murder,” said match their actions – even as they continue to modern- Dr Ramana, author of The Power of Promise: Examining ize their arsenals. Undeterred, the UN’s Committee on elimination of nuclear weapons. All three countries voted in favour of the resolution last year, with U.S. and Nuclear Energy in India and a former member of the Disarmament and International Security (also known as Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic the First Committee) traditionally adopts a cluster of Britain as co-sponsors. But this year both countries were missing in action – much to the disappointment of Scientists and the International Panel on Fissile Materi- over 15-20 resolutions every year – mostly on arms als. control and nuclear disarmament. Japan, a key Western ally.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 16 The U.S. abstention was also a surprise considering supporting resolutions raising concern about humani- tentative commitment to practical steps towards President Barack Obama’s call for a nuclear weapons- tarian consequences. nuclear disarmament, said Rigg. free world, in a historic speech he made in Prague in Now that Mexico's resolution for an Open-ended “Although Russia and China frequently allow the U.S. 2009. working group next year has been overwhelmingly to take the flak for not supporting disarmament, on this Speaking from Nagasaki, where she has been attend- adopted by the First Committee, Japan should engage occasion they came out of the closet and voted against ing meetings of Pugwash scientists and religious constructively to "substantively address effective legal the Japanese resolution.” leaders, Dr Rebecca Johnson, a nuclear analyst on the measures". All nuclear possessors have the bomb, and are steering group of the International Campaign to Abolish The Hibakusha and Japanese people will expect their hell-bent on hanging on to it. The non-possessors can Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) said: "Japan is caught government to stop pandering to the P5 (in the UN neither persuade nor force the possessors to disarm, between a rock and a hard place.” Security Council) who want to keep nuclear weapons, said Rigg, a former senior editor with theOrganisation This result shows the perils of the Japanese govern- and to work for a legally binding instrument to prohibit for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The ment trying to bridge between incompatible positions, the use, deployment and possession of nuclear weap- Hague. when what is necessary is a decision on where to stand ons, and require their total elimination," declared Dr He said President Obama’s Prague speech of April and commit to nuclear disarmament, she noted. Johnson. 2009 was over-hyped by international media and Rock, stuck in the 20th century Bob Rigg, a former chair of the New Zealand Consulta- quietly ignored by the U.S. military/industrial establish- The U.S. is at present a rock, stuck in the 20th century, tive Committee on Disarmament, who writes on ment. with its continuing dependence on maintaining and chemical and nuclear weapons-related issues and on “The very same Obama collapsed like a pricked modernizing nuclear arsenals. So Japan cannot please U.S. foreign policy, said although Japan was the victim balloon, and is now increasing expenditure on upgrad- Washington unless it reduces its position to empty of two devastating U.S. atomic attacks at the end of ing the U.S. nuclear arsenal, to improve its strike rhetoric, she added. World War II, subsequent conservative Japanese capability.” In this situation, said Dr Johnson, the Abe government governments have, ironically enough, tried to benefit In the current run up to the 2016 U.S. presidential should stand with the Hibakusha and the Japanese strategically from the American nuclear umbrella by election, he pointed out, not a single candidate has people, who are in the hard place of advocating the playing down this issue. dared to advocate reduced military expenditure, let prohibition and abolition of nuclear weapons. In return for this, he said, the Washington has been alone steps towards nuclear disarmament. “Seventy years after atomic bombs destroyed Hiro- only too willing to support bland Japanese resolutions “The UN Conference on Disarmament and the UN First shima and Nagasaki, Japanese people are tired of paying lip service to nuclear disarmament in very Committee have degenerated into graveyards where hearing their government try to bridge the difference general terms. the hopes of the people of Japan, who are not repre- between nuclear disarmament and nuclear moderniza- The decision of the U.S., the UK, and France to abstain sented by their own government, and of a war-weary tion by uttering sentimental platitudes and relying on from Japan's First Committee resolution can only be world are buried beneath mountains of repetitive, the U.S. to use nuclear weapons in Japan's name, which attributed to their disquiet with the growing wave of redundant resolutions, full of sound and fury, signifying is what the nuclear alliance requires.” international impatience with their implacable opposi- nothing.” Dr Johnson also said Japan can be commended for tion to anything that could even be interpreted as a [IDN-InDepthNews – 08 November 2015] Photo: UN First Committee

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 17 Nuclear-Weapons-Free Africa Keen To Harness Atomic Energy

By Jeffrey Moyo HARARE (IDN) - Nuclear disarmament is a non-issue in Southern Africa. Because no African country possesses nuclear weapons. In fact the 38-nation African Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (ANWFZ) Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Pelindaba, signed in 1996, established a Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone in Africa. The treaty came into effect on July 15, 2009. According to experts, rather than focussing on nuclear weapons, energy should be expended on seeing how the region may utilise nuclear power amidst rampant electricity deficits that have seen most of the countries in the region thrown in incessant darkness. The experts’ focus on electricity availability here coincides with the United Nations Sustainable Develop- ment Goal 7 to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”. “Countries in the Sub-Saharan region must be permit- ted to utilise nuclear energy as this may be an answer to electricity shortfalls here, however taking into cognisance the long-term effects of nuclear waste that dangerous war weapons, but with the layman’s knowl- These views are being expressed against the backdrop endangers human life,” Happison Chikova, an indepen- edge that I have about nuclear energy, it is cheaper if it that, despite raging debate about nuclear disarmament dent environmentalist and nuclear energy expert based can be used to generate electricity,” Mevion Chimedza, in the world’s military strongholds, no African country in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, told IDN. a resident in Highfield, a high density suburb in Harare, here possesses nuclear weapons to this day. Nuclear waste is radioactive and an extremely toxic the Zimbabwean capital, told IDN. This in spite of the fact that, according to the Arms by-product of nuclear fuel processing plants, nuclear But to climate experts here, emphasis on civilian Control Association, the world’s nine nuclear armed medicine and nuclear weapons industries. Nuclear instead of military use of nuclear power in this part of states possess a combined total of roughly 16,000 wastes remain radioactive for thousands of years and Africa is an answer to dire climate change effects. nuclear warheads, more that 90 per cent belong to have to be buried deep on land or at sea in thick “It will help in the mitigation of climate change Russia and the United States. concrete or lead and stainless metal containers. impacts and improve agriculture production here, but if Along with China, France and UK, they constitute the Despite the hazards associated with nuclear energy, it’s a low investment, nuclear should be adopted to five permanent members of the UN Security Council hard-hit with power woes, even ordinary people in this help generate electricity, which in this case means with and are also known as the "nuclear-weapon states" region agree with many experts like Chikova. the nuclear activity, we will be able to mechanise our under the terms of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation “I personally don’t care where electricity would come production methods including agriculture,” Zisunko of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). In addition, India, Pakistan, from even if authorities would harness it from nuclear Ndlovu, an independent climate change expert in Israel and North Korea are known to be armed with energy, which many fear is often used in manufacturing Zimbabwe, told IDN. nuclear weapons.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 18 In Southern Africa, only South Africa has at one time Kingdom, and the United States – to commit equally to to train its citizens on the use of nuclear power, as possessed nuclear weapons. It became the first nation the global elimination of all nuclear weapons and confirmed by the country’s Mines and Energy Minister in the world to voluntarily give up all nuclear arms it depleted uranium ordnance,” said Kantey. Isak Katali then. had developed before the anticipated changeover to a But back to Zimbabwe, in 2012 amid widespread belief “We are currently producing uranium, and exporting it majority-elected African National Congress government that the Southern African nation possessed vast raw. Nuclear electricity is cheap and safe,” Katali told in the 1990s. untapped deposits of uranium, criticalfor both civil reporters then. The country has been a signatory of the Biological nuclear power generation and military nuclear weap- Meanwhile, South Africa is the only country in Africa Weapons Convention since 1975, the Treaty on the ons, the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority chief with a commercial nuclearpower plant made up of two Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons since 1991, and executive officer Josh Chifamba has been on record reactors accounting for around 4 percent of that the Chemical Weapons Convention since 1995. saying a team of experts here would soon be country’s electricity generation. In fact the South “As citizens of South Africa, we are mindful of the assembled to look into the feasibility of such a venture African government has been on record indicating it South African Government's voluntary and unilateral in a move likely to attract international attention. would encourage a great deal of localisation in the relinquishing of a nuclear weapons capability in the “We will set up a small group to look at the nuclear construction and fabrication of nuclear facilities. 1990s,” Mike Kantey, former Chairman of the Coalition option. We are looking at the year 2020 and onwards This, however, has unsettled nuclear energy experts Against Nuclear Energy from 2007-2014 and now for full-scale nuclear power production,” Chifamba told here. Director of the Watercourse Media and Development an International Business Conference in Bulawayo last “South Africa will experience huge quantities of Company, told IDN. year (2014). nuclear waste and reactor decommissioning that may Based on views from anti-nuclear activists and experts Zimbabwe possesses unexploited uranium deposits in become as expensive as construction itself,” Tony like Kantey, countries in this region, particularly South the Zambezi valley while it is also estimated that Huffing, an independent nuclear energy expert based in Africa, are aware of the hazards of nuclear energy. Kanyemba Mine in the Zambezi valley holds more than South Africa, told IDN. Meeting with hibakusha 45,000 tonnes of uranium ore with over 20,000 tonnes But last year, South Africa launched the National “As anti-nuclear activists and veterans of the Anti- extractible. Radioactive Waste Disposal Institute to assume respon- Apartheid struggle, we were privileged to have hosted a Iran and China are reported to have expressed a keen sibility for the management and disposal of country’s delegation from the city of Hiroshima at the beginning interest in Zimbabwe’s uranium deposits, this despite radioactive waste. of the 21st Century, where we heard an eyewitness the UN having imposed fresh sanctions on Iran in 2013 For many nuclear experts like Zimbabwe’s Chikova, account from one of the hibakusha, or survivors of that after the country refused to halt its uranium enrich- with no single country possessing nuclear weapons in nuclear holocaust,” added Kantey. ment programme. Africa, the challenge may not be that of a world free of According to Kantey, on that occasion, the Japanese Apparently eager to harness energy from the atom, nuclear weapons. delegation was actively campaigning for the universal the Zimbabwean government seems unperturbed by “There are no nuclear weapons to talk about here in nuclear disarmament and was asking South Africans to the dangers nuclear may pose environmentally. this part of Africa and we need not waste time talking help in lobbying for an end to nuclear proliferation in In 2013, Foreign Affairs minister Simbarashe Mum- about nuclear disarmament, but rather invest our South Asia, in the Middle East and in North Korea. bengegwi told an Iranian news agency that Zimbabwe energies in harnessing nuclear energy without posing “From a unilateral pledge on the part of the State of was willing to work with Iran on extracting uranium harm to the region’s environment,” Chikova said. Israel and the declaration of a Weapons of Mass resources meant for Tehran’s controversial nuclear [IDN-InDepthNews – 30 October 2015] Destruction (WMD) Free Zone in the Middle East, we programme. Photo: High-level Panel on Blix Commission’s Report believe that a greater pressure may be placed on South Like Zimbabwe, Namibia sees hope to end its energy Weapons of Terror meeting on October 21 at UN in Asia to do the same, and so lead to a final commitment deficits through nuclear energy. New York. UN Photo/Loey Felipe of the Big Five – China, France, Russia, the United Last year (2014) the Namibian government anticipated constructing a nuclear power plant simulator in future

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 19 UN Plans New Working Groups Aimed at Nuclear Disarmament

By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - Against the backdrop of a 2013 and 2014 conferences on humanitarian impacts Cabasso told the First Committee the nuclear-armed potential military confrontation between the world’s of nuclear weapons in Oslo, Nayarit, and Vienna; and countries are edging ever closer to direct military two major nuclear powers – the United States and the draft final document of the May 2015 NPT Review confrontation in conflict zones around the world, from Russia – the United Nations is taking a significant step Conference. Ukraine to Syria and the broader Middle East to the towards a hitherto impossible goal: nuclear disarma- “Regardless of the short-term output of a new work- Western Pacific. ment. ing group, its operation would definitely be positive “The danger of nuclear war is growing again on a scale The 193-member General Assembly, through its because it would keep the momentum going and create measured in months or years,” she said. Committee on Disarmament and International Security an opening for further steps.” And those who rule in the nuclear-armed states (also known as the First Committee), is expected to The United States, he pointed out, has shifted its appear comfortable approaching disarmament on a establish an open-ended working group — or possibly position from its opposition to the 2013 working group, time scale measured in generations — and show no two such groups — to deliberate or negotiate on saying that it would support a new working group, interest in taking up the task again anytime soon. effective measures for nuclear disarmament. though it insists on a consensus procedure and says The coalition that endorsed the statement includes One of the draft resolutions, currently in circulation, that a working group should explore all effective Global Action to Prevent War, International Peace calls for the Working Group to convene in Geneva in measures (e.g. verification) for nuclear disarmament, Bureau, International Physicians for the Prevention of 2016, as a subsidiary body of the General Assembly and not negotiate legal measures. Nuclear War, Soka Gakkai International, Women’s under its rules of procedure. Which other members of the Permanent Five — International League for Peace and Freedom, Project The Working Group is expected to submit a report, including Britain, France, China and Russia — will come Ploughshares, International Association of Lawyers reflecting the negotiations and its recommendations, to out, remains to be seen, he added. Against Nuclear Arms, Israeli Disarmament Movement, the General Assembly at its 71st session in September “But the U.S. shift is a sign that the environment is Swedish Peace Council, Acronym Institute for Disarma- next year. changing for the better,” said Burroughs, who is also ment Diplomacy, CODE PINK, Western States Legal This draft resolution, sponsored by Mexico, has Director of the U.N. Office of International Association Foundation and Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, several co-sponsors, including Austria, Brazil, Chile, of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms. among others. Costa Rica, Ghana, Liechtenstein, Ireland, Malta, Jackie Cabasso, executive director of the Western Aaron Tovish, International Director, 2020 Vision Nigeria, the Philippines and South Africa. States Legal Foundation, one of the strongest advo- Campaign, and Mayors for Peace, told IPS: “Given the A second draft resolution, sponsored by Iran, calls on a cates of nuclear disarmament, told IPS that all resolu- ongoing abuse of the consensus rule in the Conference second Working Group to transmit its report to the tions forwarded from the Committee on Disarmament on Disarmament, already back in 2006, Mayors for U.N.’s high level international conference on nuclear and International Security are overwhelmingly adopted Peace began promoting the creation of a working group disarmament to be held no later than 2018, and to the each year by the General Assembly, which is not bound that would operate under U.N. General Assembly rules Conference on Disarmament and the Disarmament by consensus. of Procedure.” Commission. This year, she pointed out, the General Assembly is He said the 2013 Open-Ended Working Group on John Burroughs, Executive Director of the New expected to establish an open ended working group ‘Taking Forward Multilateral Negotiations on Nuclear York-based Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, told (open to all 193 member states) to take forward Disarmament’ was a successful, albeit too short, IPS: “The relevant resolutions are still under negotia- proposals to implement nuclear disarmament. exercise. tion.” She said a statement made Oct.16 by a coalition of “It is most timely to revive the Working Group with a This development, he said, builds on the momentum over 135 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from stronger mandate.” created by the 2013 open-ended working group to 19 countries has an unequivocal message: “We call on “I see nothing wrong with having working groups develop proposals for multilateral negotiations; the (member) states to stop fiddling while Rome burns.” being held in both Geneva and New York next year. In a statement endorsed by the 135 organizations, Each venue has strengths and weaknesses, so those

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 20 prepared to work for nuclear disarmament in good She said the new round of conflicts and confronta- She said these human catastrophes are used to justify faith, should be willing to contribute to both venues” tions, and the resumption of arms racing, are driven by competing armed interventions that raise the stakes he added. those who have the power to shape policy in the even higher, with nuclear-armed militaries operating in Tovish also said: “We are just at the beginning of nuclear-armed states. close quarters in proxy confrontations that easily could getting full-fledged negotiations (on establishing a “Primary responsibility for the continued scourge of spiral out of control. Nuclear Weapons-Free World) underway, so it is too industrialized warfare world-wide lies with the A small fraction of humanity benefits in the short run early to be prejudging which way forward will be most military-industrial complexes and national security state from these high stakes competitions; all of us bear the productive. It is conceivable that a good division of elites at the apex of the global war system, and those in risk, she declared. labour could be agreed upon for two (or more) the United States above all.” (IPS | 28 October 2015) forums.” Cabasso said nuclear-armed states account for three Photo: Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (front row, In her statement, prepared by Andrew Lichterman on quarters of global arms exports; the United States and centre right) poses for a group photo with this year’s behalf of the coalition, Cabasso said: “No amount of Russia together for over half. participants of the United Nations Disarmament tinkering with the disarmament machinery can turn it They provide the kinds of weapons that turn local, Fellowship Programme. On his right is Kim Won-soo, into a vehicle for disarmament progress when those in low-intensity conflicts into industrial-scale wars that Acting UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs. the driver’s seat have no intention of moving forward.” fragment societies, destroy vital infrastructure, and Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider destabilize entire regions.

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 21 Australia Under Heavy Criticism For Nuclear Agreement with India

By Neena Bhandari Warning that Australian uranium will further fuel the encourage India to make genuine disarmament nuclear arms race in the region, Dr Ruff says, this would advances, such as signing the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. SYDNEY (IDN) - Though the Australian Parliament has happen “either indirectly, by expanding the pool of The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) wants not yet ratified the Australia-India Nuclear Cooperation uranium available, which from domestic sources is Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to be mindful of the Agreement signed in 2014, civil society, environment insufficient for both India’s military and nuclear power serious concerns associated with this planned action and disarmament advocates caution that sale of plans; or directly”. and respect the highly cautionary approach outlined in uranium to India would fuel a nuclear arms race in the “The enmeshment of India’s military and civilian the JSCOT report and recommendations. region and undermine Australia’s strong credentials as operations, the lack of an effective independent nuclear “We hold deep concerns that the Australia-India an exponent of nuclear safeguards policies. regulatory agency, the extremely limited application of uranium deal will increase risk, especially with India’s The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear safeguards which can be varied by India at any time, nuclear industry the subject of continuing and unre- Weapons (ICAN) Australia has expressed grave con- and the substantial limitations of the safeguards solved safety problems and regulatory deficiencies. In cerns regarding the weak safeguards in the Agreement, themselves contribute to these risks,” he adds. 2012 the Indian Auditor General had released a the poor safety record at Indian nuclear facilities, and He says that India’s use of a reactor provided by damning report warning of ‘a Fukushima or Chernobyl- the implications of the Agreement for the nuclear Canada and fuel provided by the U.S to produce the like disaster if the nuclear safety issue is not addressed’. non-proliferation regime.This is the first time the plutonium for its first nuclear explosion in 1974 The concerns highlighted in this report, including lax Australian Government would be selling uranium to a breached assurances that both would be utilised only regulation, poor governance and a deficient safety country that is not a signatory to the nuclear Non- for peaceful purposes. culture, remain largely unaddressed,” ACF’s Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT). “Meanwhile, Pakistan’s response to the opening up of Free Campaigner, Dave Sweeney, told IDN. “Nuclear commerce with India on arguably less international nuclear commerce with India has been as So is there a real danger that Australian uranium will stringent terms than those applied to NPT signatories alarming as it has been predictable – ramping up its free up India’s existing uranium stockpiles to be used in compliant with their NPT non-proliferation obligations production of fissile materials, and expanding its its nuclear weapons programme? Sweeney says, undermines the purpose, credibility and value of the nuclear arsenal, at a rate currently faster than any “Increasingly likely. India is actively expanding its NPT. The deal with India, which (also) contravenes other nation”, Dr Ruff, who is also Co-President of nuclear arsenal and weapons capabilities through Australia’s obligations under the South Pacific Nuclear International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear increased uranium enrichment capacity, increased Weapons Free Zone, cements Australia as part of the War (IPPNW), told IDN. attention to multiple weapons launch platforms and problem of nuclear danger rather than part of the IPPNW was awarded 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for advanced work on improved submarine launch capabili- solution,” says Dr Tilman A Ruff, Founding Chair of ICAN performing "a considerable service to mankind by ties. The proposed treaty action places no practical, Australia. spreading authoritative information and by creating an political or perception barrier to any of these activities. Article IV of the South Pacific Nuclear Weapons Free awareness of the catastrophic consequences of atomic Instead it effectively gives a green light to India’s Zone Treaty (SPNFZ), which entered into force on warfare". nuclear weapons ambitions. Such a cavalier approach is December 11, 1986, obliges signatories to not supply not in the best interests of Australia or the region.” equipment or material to countries – like India – which Signing NPT a precondition Australia has 40 per cent of the world’s uranium are not under full scope safeguards. Negotiations for the sale of uranium to India began in reserves and it is a significant uranium exporter. A Signatories to the Treaty are apart from Australia: 2006 and an agreement was reached in 2014. In its significant portion of Australia's uranium has been Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Australia-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement report sourced over three decades from Mirarr land in the Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, tabled on September 8, 2015, the Joint Standing Northern Territory. Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. Of the five nuclear-weapon Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) recommended that the states, France and the Britain have ratified all three Agreement be ratified, but the regulation of nuclear Aboriginals caution protocols while Russia and China have only ratified safety and security at Indian nuclear facilities be The representative organisation of the Mirarr people, Protocols II and III. U.S. ratification of all three protocols addressed before the sale of uranium takes place. It the Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation’s Chief Execu- is pending. called on Australia to commit diplomatic resources to tive Officer Justin O'Brien says, “Traditional Owners

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 22 have long held concerns regarding the impacts of uranium once it is exported and its potential to be used in nuclear weapons. The Mirarr are worried by the lack of enforceable safeguards to ensure uranium intended for nuclear power is not diverted to nuclear weapons and these appear to be even weaker than usual in this proposed Agreement.” For Australia, the uranium deal could increase exports and employment opportunities. The deal could bring in an extra 1.75 billion Australian dollars (about 1.27 billion U.S. dollars) worth of exports to the economy and create up to 4,000 jobs. Friends of the Earth Australia National nuclear cam- paigner Jim Green, however, expresses doubts. “Ura- nium sales to India will do very little or nothing to boost Australia's export revenue or employment in remote and Indigenous communities. Uranium sales to India would boost Australia's uranium revenue by a negligible 3 percent and create just a few dozen jobs.” For India, the uranium sale deal could help the emerging economic power meet its energy needs. But as Dr Sue Wareham, Vice-President, Medical Associa- tion for Prevention of War (Australia)says, “Nuclear power cannot address the issue of climate change. Even if there is further development of nuclear power, it will be far too slow because it takes 10 to 15 years to get a nuclear power plant at a point of producing electricity. Particularly important also is the link with weapons. We know there are definite links between is that we don’t have any way of reliably and perma- country it doesn’t have any nuclear weapons, but the civilian and military fuel cycles, and that is a nently separating nuclear waste from the environment. subscribes to the doctrine of extended nuclear deter- particular problem that will remain as long as nuclear The world really needs to put serious and significant rence under the U.S. alliance. power is there”. funding into further promotion, development and ICAN is calling on the Australian Government to Nuclear energy’s share of global commercial electricity implementation of renewable energies – solar, wind, support a diplomatic process to negotiate a legally generation has remained almost stable (–0.2 percent) geothermal and biofuels, which have been underused binding instrument prohibiting nuclear weapons as the in 2013 compared to the previous year, but declined and under-resourced”, Dr Wareham told IDN. best next step towards achieving their complete from a peak of 17.6 percent in 1996 to 10.8 percent, A detailed report by WWF-India and TERI - The Energy elimination. according to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report and Resources Institute had mapped out how India [IDN-InDepthNews – 26 October 2015] 2014. could generate as much as 90 percent of total primary Photo: Ranger Uranium Mine in Kakadu National Park, She points out that there is also the problem of energy from renewables by 2050. east of Darwin, Australia. nuclear waste. “The technological and practical reality Australia is in an interesting situation because as a Credit: Stephen Codrington – Wikimedia Commons

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 23 Saudi Nuclear Blustering Remains Hollow – for Now

would in fact gradually lift sanctions on Tehran for its agreement to cut back its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98 percent for 15 years and reducing its installed centrifuges. Yet, Saudi Arabia and other regional Gulf Arab allies saw the deal as nothing short of a dramatic shift of the balance of regional power. Iran can use new streams of revenue to improve its conventional armament and expand its regional influence without losing any of its scientific, technological or nuclear edge over its over-indulgent wealthy Arab neighbors. After all, Arab capitals have long blindly trusted U.S. guarantees of Gulf security to the point where they neglected investment in scientific development and relied heavily on massive arms purchases from the U.S. that sat to collect dust in storage houses. Iran's unprecedented projection of military power and influence in neighboring Iraq and Syria along with Iranian backing of Yemeni Houthi rebels only vexed the Saudis more. Little wonder more Saudi pundits are screaming at the top of their voice they can and will go nuclear. To seal it all, the Obama administration appears to them as if Washington is renegading on its security pledges. By Emad Mekay* “I think the Obama Administration has “The kingdom can only look to itself to protect its done a terrible job of creating a regional security CAIRO (IDN) - When the U.S.-Iran nuclear deal was people, even if it means implementing a nuclear strategy,” said Jeffrey Lewis, professor at the Middle- announced in July, the image in state-controlled Saudi program,” wrote Nawaf Obaid, Senior Fellow at the bury Institute of International Studies at Monterey. “It media was of Western powers caving in to a new King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. A is not surprising that allies and partners would be powerful neighboring foe. The usually reticent Saudi nuclear Iran, he said, "represents a state of extreme expressing discomfort with what they see as strategic officials paid the usual diplomatic lip-service to the danger to multiple nations, but few more so than Saudi drift. Most Saudis are alarmed at the deterioration in agreement but social media, academia and state- Arabia, which has long been Iran’s primary opponent in regional security and believe that the Obama Adminis- owned news outlet all portrayed a different picture; the Middle East power balance." tration is inept.” profound Saudi anxiety that included statements that Ironically, the deal that alarmed the Saudis was “I am reluctant to conclude that the current unease is the oil-rich country can use its wealth to go nuclear. designed to produce a different result. The framework permanent until we see how the next Administration

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 24 handles the regional and bilateral relationship,” he Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. Saudi going nuclear as their over-zealous media and added. Other obstacles remain before a Saudi nuclear some in the regime would like to claim. For Middle East experts, the Saudis rarely vent their programme. Saudi Arabia controls 16 percent of the Washington has talked about offering Riyadh a frustration publicly preferring to work behind the scene world's known oil reserves yet it remains an authoritar- “nuclear umbrella” that would purportedly protect Gulf or clandestinely. But this time the Saudi media ian developing nation that lacks the educational and states including Saudi Arabia against a nuclear Iran. If it responded to the deal with stories upon stories describ- technological skills to develop nuclear warheads or was to go ahead, the deal would in fact limit Saudi ing Saudi Arabia's missile forces in striking detail as well ballistic missile technology. nuclear ambitions. as its nuclear ambitions. Te Al-Saud family-run regime has long preferred to Under the proposal Saudi Arabia would be negotiating Nuclear programme spend on the welfare state and pamper its citizens with a civil nuclear cooperation agreement. It is expected to Riyadh already has a nuclear programme. In 2011, it luxury items rather than on developing profound include language whereby Saudi Arabia voluntarily announced plans for the construction of sixteen nuclear scientific or personal skills. refrain from enrichment and reprocessing. Heavy power reactors over the next twenty years at a cost of "Saudi Arabia possesses only a rudimentary civil investments in the King Abdullah Center for Atomic and more than 80 billion dollars. These would generate nuclear infrastructure, and currently lacks the physical Renewable Energy would be scaled back and plans for about 20 percent of Saudi Arabia's electricity, while and technological resources to develop an indigenous city-sized research center would be shelved. The other, smaller reactors were envisaged for desalination. nuclear weapons capability,” said a recent report from money would be going to US coffers instead. Recently, the French and the Saudis announced the Nuclear Threat Initiative, a Washington-based NGO The nuclear blustering in the Saudi media can also feasibility studies to secure contracts for two nuclear that works towards reduction of nuclear weapons. prove hollow on other counts. This month (in October) reactor facilities to be built by Areva, a French com- To compensate for its lack of indigenous knowledge- the IMF said that Riyadh suffers low oil prices and a pany. Deals with Hungary, Russia, Argentina and China based infrastructure, Riyadh, which routinely deploys budget deficit that could erode reserves quickly. are in the pipeline towards building reactors costing its wealth to win international favours, had also Worse, in their zeal to spread its regional hegemony, around 2 billion dollars each. assumed that forming an alliance with a nuclear power, the Saudi royal family took on large foreign expenditure The King Abdullah Atomic Energy City (KACARE) has such as Pakistan, would offer “purchased” protection. as well. It contributed some 6 billion dollars to the taken most matters into hand and it is said to be By showing generosity to the Pakistani or the Egyptian military coup in Egypt that toppled the country's first manned by young researchers imbibed with an ideol- military, Riyadh can tap into the Pakistani nuclear elected president for fear democracy could spread to ogy that sees Iran as the ultimate threat to their programme and order bombs when it wants to, the the conservative kingdom. It later started a costly nation's existence. theory went. bombardment campaign on the Shiite Houthi Group in The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is in Shortcomings in Saudi largesse Yemen in March 2015 on top of its bankrolling some close cooperation with Riyadh in developing a peaceful But a recent development showed the shortcomings Syrian rebel groups fighting for the fourth year. nuclear power programme and cancer treatment of Saudi largesse. Pakistan balked at sending ground The Iran deal may have indeed alarmed the Saudi facilities at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and troops to fight in Yemen alongside the inexperienced regime into unleashing is propagandists into nuclear Research Center. Saudi soldiers; an episode that embarrassed Riyadh and grandstanding but the country had missed the opportu- But despite the newly-found motivation and initial showed the limits of its money-based security strategy. nity of a real nuclear programme a long time ago. endeavour, many Middle East experts agree that Saudi Many nuclear arms experts who monitor the Middle Re-opening that window again can and will take many officials can wish all they want but they really cannot East say that Saudi nuclear weapons “on order” is an more years. build a nuclear weapon. All they are doing is just allegation that has not been substantiated in any way. [IDN-InDepthNews – 25 October 2015] dabbling in early nuclear energy research and making “It can be done, but it seems very unlikely,” said Lewis. *Emad Mekay is Middle East correspondent and Middle “noise'. “ Most experts doubt that Pakistan would set aside East Bureau Chief of International Press Syndicate and “So far that noise has not translated to anything nuclear weapons for transfer to Saudi Arabia or partici- its flagship IDN-InDepthNews. concrete above and beyond talk, sometimes a loud pate in a nuclear sharing arrangement.” Photo: Saudi Arabia attended the Nuclear Security talk,” said Avner Cohen, a researcher with the James Saudi allies, particularity the U.S., will not tolerate Summit in The Hague Credit: www.kacare.gov.sa

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 25 International Partnership Updates on Nuclear Disarmament Verification

By Fabíola Ortiz NEW YORK (IDN) - An effective verification of atomic ship initiative, he said: “In order to dismantle nuclear that need to be resolved on way to an effective verifica- arsenals as well as that of nuclear material and other weapons, we need tools to make verifications. Being tion system. military activities is a pre-condition for achieving a able to verify disarmament is a pre-condition for Following the inaugural meeting in Washington DC, world free of nuclear weapons, experts told IDN. They reaching a world without nuclear weapons.” the Partnership countries agreed to set up three were participating in a briefing to update on Interna- “The whole purpose of the meeting was to . . .give working groups: on monitoring and verification objec- tional Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification countries an update on the progress that we have tives co-chaired by The Netherlands and Italy; on-site (IPNDV) at the UN Headquarters in New York. made since the initial kick-off meeting of the interna- Inspections that will be the responsibility of Australia The establishment of the IPNDV goes back to Decem- tional partnership (IPNDV). We wanted to raise aware- and Poland; and the third working group related to ber 4, 2014, when the U.S. Under Secretary of State for ness of what we are doing,” Andrew Bieniawski, the technical challenges and solutions, chaired by Sweden Arms Control and International Security Rose Gotte- vice-president of the NTI, told IDN. and United States. moeller announced a new initiative to develop the tools According to him, the main benefit of this interna- The three groups are now reviewing the drafts and and technologies in the quest to reduce and eliminate tional partnership is that it includes countries both with terms of reference to determine the charter to be nuclear weapons. and without nuclear weapons. There are currently finalized and approved in Oslo. more than 25 states involved in the partnership. The IPNDV channels, as the U.S. Department of State Comprehensive library “It is not just trying to get as large a number of says, expertise from both nuclear and non-nuclear “We have been putting a lot of work into this partner- countries as possible, but it is getting the right set of weapon states to address the complex challenges ship. Countries have different levels of expertise and countries that have expertise that can provide value involved in the verification of nuclear disarmament. understanding on this complicated issue,” NTI vice- and input into the process,” he emphasized, referring The inaugural meeting was held in Washington, DC in president Bieniawski said. to countries like Norway, Britain, Australia and Poland March 2015. Ahead of the IPNDV plenary on November In coordination with the U.S. State Department and that include those knowledgeable in the field. 16-18 in Oslo (Norway) to finalize the terms of refer- the Department of Energy, NTI has built a comprehen- “We are working to provide as much confidence as ence, the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the United sive library of articles, reports and studies on a range of possible but at the same time protect sensitive infor- States Mission to the UN co-hosted on October 14 a verification and monitoring topics with the relevant mation. There is a balance between studying the public side event at the United Nations in New York, work completed to date. technologies and learning lessons from on-sight ‘Building a Path Forward: Update on the International “There are more than 200 documents that are now inspections to building as much confidence as possible. Partnership for Nuclear Disarmament Verification’. available at the NTI website. They are free and unclassi- But we have to do it in a safe and secure manner An important participant in the event was Jørn fied. We want to build a body of knowledge and complying with safety and security regulations,” he Osmundsen, senior adviser on Global Security and increase the capacity of the partnership. This shows the said. Disarmament at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership is already active underway even though it is According to NTI, there are still a lot of technical issues Norway. Explaining the rationale behind the Partner a multi-year process,” explained Bieniawski.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 26 One of the main goals is focused on In March 2013, Oslo hosted the first Conference on capacity building and connecting the the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear Weapons, a dots between technical experts who wake-up call for nuclear abolition. Since then, two work on other aspects central to further conferences have taken place in Nayarit Non-Proliferation of NuclearWeapons (Mexico) in February 2014, and in Vienna (Austria) in (NPT) and disarmament issues,” he told December 2014. “ IDN. “We have some solid experience that we can bring The next meeting in Oslo is awaited into this partnership,” added the senior adviser on with great expectations. By the time, Disarmament from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign the three working groups co-chaired by Affairs referring to the 2007 UK-Norway initiative the six countries will have agreed on a (UKNI) on nuclear warhead dismantlement verification. charter to put into practice. The UKNI is collaboration between experts from both “This work is very technical and it countries to a collaborative technical research on takes time. We cannot rush. We have nuclear disarmament verification in order to enhance taken the time to develop the terms of transparency, confidence and openness, and advance reference of the three working groups. progress towards the UK and Norway’s shared aim of In his view, the reaction from the countries attending And this is one of the objectives of the Oslo meeting, to the peace and security of a world without nuclear the public side event at the UN was positive. “There finalize those terms of reference,” explained Jørn weapons. were very good insightful questions. It is clear that the Osmundsen of the Foreign Ministry in Oslo. “If we are to reach the point of a world without audience knows a lot about this issue. One of the main Norway has shown a solid record on disarmament nuclear weapons, we need a verification regime. And things we emphasize is that we are trying to be as becoming a priority in the Government’s foreign polic, this is not easily developed, we need to start working transparent as possible,” stated. he said. It played an active role in the negotiations on on that now,” said Osmundsen. The senior program officer at the NTI for Material the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty and the 2008 Convention on [IDN-InDepthNews – 19 October 2015] Security and Minimization and the Nuclear Security Cluster Munitions. Image: Cropped Web Banner IPNDV Project, Kelsy Hartigan, who also attended the meeting In response to the lack of progress on nuclear disar- at the UN, said the Partnership is intended to gather mament negotiations, the Norwegian government and share know-how among countries. co-sponsored a UN General Assembly resolution in “States do have a lot of technical expertise in related October 2012 that established a new process to take areas that can be applied to disarmament verification. forward multilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations This will be a long term and sustainable partnership. (the so-called Open Ended Working Group).

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 27 EU Gives Additional Funds to Promote Entry into Force of Nuclear Test Ban Treaty

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 28 By Jaya Ramachandran ance with the Treaty and to provide the international contribution will fund both studies of global radioxenon BERLIN (IDN) - With a view to promoting entry-into- community with independent and reliable means to background levels and developing a system to trap force of the nuclear test ban treaty, the European ensure compliance with it, once it enters into force,” radioxenon emissions at the source. Union (EU) has decided to increase its support to the the European bloc stated. Other projects under this heading include upgrades to Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Responding to the EU decision, CTBTO Executive the VDeC system, a portal that allows external Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) by Secretary Lassina Zerbo said: “I believe that without the researchers to access IMS data and International Data contributing an additional amount of 3 million euros European Union's support we could not have reached Centre Products, as well as upgrades to IDC software (about 3.9 million dollars). This brings the bloc’s the current well-advanced status in the build-up and for analysing waveform (seismic, infrasound and voluntary financial contributions since 2006 to a total of operational capabilities of the CTBT verification hydroacoustic) data. some 19 million euros (nearly 21.5 million dollars). regime.” 2. Upgrading on-site inspection capabilities As a group, all 28 EU Member States have signed and This, he added, includes the EU's help to developing To further the CTBTO’s on-site inspection capabilities, ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty countries to build capacities in CTBT verification the contribution will allow for the purchase of multi- (CTBT). The EU Member States’ regular contributions technologies, thus getting buy-in from these countries spectral imaging equipment for use from aircraft as was amount to around 40 percent of the CTBTO’s budget. into the world's largest and most sophisticated multilat- used in the last comprehensive on-site inspection The CTBT plays a central role in underpinning the eral verification system, referred to by U.S. Secretary of exercise, the IFE14 in Jordan in last 2014. The contribu- international non-proliferation regime and the efforts State John Kerry as one of the great achievements of tion will also allow for the acquisition of a laser distance of the European Union (EU) towards global disarma- the modern world. measuring system, also for use on an airborne platform, ment. “The EU is, therefore, strongly committed to the “As we prepare to mark 20 years since the opening for to support a range of on-site inspection techniques. entry into force and universalisation of the CTBT,” the signature of the CTBT, the strong political and financial 3. Outreach and country-level capacity building delegation of the European Union to the international support of the EU are vital in ensuring continued organizations in Vienna stated in a press note on The contribution will allow the CTBTO to continue its progress toward achieving entry into force,” Zerbo capacity building programmes in developing countries, October 19, 2015. These contributions are in line with declared. the EU Strategy against Proliferation of Weapons of which has been an integral part of all previous EU Building on previous EU voluntary contributions, the voluntary contributions. Mass Destruction, the note said. new EU Council Decision provides support to the CTBT “The overarching aim of the European Council’s This support allows these countries to establish and verification regime in three main areas, CTBTO maintain a National Data Centre, which is the data decision of October 12, 2015 is to further promote the explained in a web posted note on October 19, 2015. universalisation and entry-into-force of the Treaty, centre maintained in each CTBT Member State to 1. Sustaining the International Monitoring System which are two of the key objectives of the EU Strategy, receive monitoring data and products and to advise its Network but also contribute to the operation and sustainability government on events of interest. The capacity building The first part of the contribution aims to support the of the CTBTO verification system as well as the develop- efforts will focus on the NDC-in-a-box standard soft- CTBTO’s network of monitoring stations the Interna- ment of its operational capabilities,” the press note ware package and on the regions of Middle East and tional Monitoring System (IMS). This includes assistance explained. South Asia, as well as Southeast Asia, the Pacific and Far to countries hosting auxiliary seismic stations that need A pertinent example that clearly demonstrates the East. support (unlike for all other types of CTBTO monitoring relevance of the Treaty and the constantly improving [IDN-InDepthNews – 19 October 2015] stations, the upkeep and maintenance of this type of performance of its verification regime, the EU added, Photo: CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo with station is the financial responsibility of the host State). can be seen in the detection of the nuclear tests by Federica Mogherini, EU High Representative for Foreign Another project aims at enhancing the IMS capabilities North Korea during the last years, and the prompt Affairs and Security Policy, and member of the CTBTO to detect radioxenon, a radioactive noble gas emitted action of the CTBTO in this regard. Group of Eminent Persons (GEM). by nuclear explosions, but also by legitimate civilian “Furthermore, the Organisation has repeatedly Credit: CTBTO activities such as medical isotope production. The demonstrated its ability to effectively monitor compli

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 29 Nuke Disarmament Groups Ask Obama and Putin to ‘Reduce Nuclear Risks’

By Ramesh Jaura the last few months on this issue, including one by The letter points to “apocalyptic” stakes. The use of Generals Cartwright and Vladimir Dvorkin, responsible the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals, constituting BERLIN (IDN) - Major nuclear disarmament groups are for the operation respectively of the U.S. and Russian some 90-95 percent of total global nuclear stocks, deeply concerned over speculations whether a Russian nuclear forces. would completely destroy all that we now call 'civilisa- Tupolev Tu-160 supersonic bomber, intercepted late Signatories of the letter include: the International tion' in less than 90 minutes, nuclear disarmament September in British airspace, was planning to attack Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), groups say. the country and unleash World War 3. They have urged awardee of 1985 Nobel Peace Prize; Mayors for Peace “The burning of large numbers of cities, itself encom- Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President 2020 Vision Campaign, comprising cities from around passing the deaths of up to half of all humans, Barack Obama to agree to “an immediate reduction in the world; the Middle Powers Initiative, the World (depending on targeting) would give rise to cata- nuclear risks”. Future Council – WFC; and theNuclear Age Peace strophic global climatic consequences, affecting even In a letter addressed also to Congressional Commit- Foundation. Several members of various parliaments countries that had no involvement in the initial conflict, tees, Ministers for Defence and Foreign Affairs as well have signed the letter. and resulting in temperatures colder than the last as other policy makers, the nuke disarmament groups warn of “the risks of catastrophic unintended conse- quences arising from possible clashes between NATO and Russian forces during a number of recent exer- cises”. The letter made public on October 7 points out that in September, a Russian Tupolev Tu-160, a strategic bomber and a missile carrier that was intercepted by NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) forces during an incursion into the British airspace, was discovered to have started the countdown to arm a nuclear bomb. Human Survival Project (HSP) and People for Nuclear Disarmament (PND) – both based in Australia – coordi- nated the letter. HSP was “adopted” by the Council of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) at Sydney University in June 2012 as a joint initiative of CPACS and PND. The latter has been active in Australia since 1960 and has a significant presence in the international disarmament movement. HSP and PND say that both Russian and NATO forces have recently conducted a number of exercises that were 'mirror-imaged' by the other side in close proxim- ity to each other. “Nuclear-armed forces on both sides may have been involved. The potential for catastrophic miscalculation is obvious,” they say. The letter initiated by HSP and PND, supported by several nuclear disarmament organizations is one of a series of communications that have been written over

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 30 ice-age,” warns the letter. tional Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War However, in their view, the likelihood of a catastrophic It adds: “This would mean that most of those still left (IPPNW), and from faith leaders worldwide, at the outcome is by no means zero. “The record of history – would either starve or freeze in the darkness of a possibility that tension between Russia and NATO may especially of August1914 – shows that even where nuclear winter.” spiral out of control with a catastrophic outcome. national leaders are confident that they have every- Three nuke risk reduction measures De-alerting nukes thing in hand, events can spin out of control with Nuclear risk reduction measures that disarmament In fact a related study on “de-alerting” (increasing the consequences that are completely out of proportion to groups are urging, include: (1) lowering nuclear alert time gap between order to launch nuclear weapons anything that might initially have been at stake.” levels so that decision-makers are no longer faced with and actually launching these) by Global Zero headed by The letter continues: “Confrontational attitudes and the necessity to take utterly apocalyptic decisions in Generals Cartwright and Dvorkin says: “Tension actions, (particularly between militaries), no matter time frames measured in a few short minutes based on between Russia and the West over the Ukraine crisis who initiates them or who is to 'blame', can as the inadequate information; (2) the sharing of launch data; has brought the parties one step closer to the precipice European Leadership Network points out, all too easily and (3) the avoidance of provocative military exercises of nuclear brinksmanship, the point at which nuclear lead to accidental conflict or even to just plain cata- and postures. risk skyrockets,” and “it has flared to the point that it is strophic accident. In order to stress point 1, the letter draws attention to producing dangerous misunderstandings and action- “If this were to lead to deeper and prolonged military a number of UN General Assembly resolutions urging a reaction cycles with strong escalatory updrafts.” conflict between two parties (such as in the Baltics) lowering in operational readiness, such as the resolu- The signatories of the letter take note of the fact that there is no telling where it would stop, or if it could be tion on 'Operational Readiness of Nuclear Weapon on the 40th anniversary – on September 16 – of the stopped at all without spiraling (as in 1914) into a Systems' sponsored by New Zealand, Switzerland, signing of the Helsinki Document establishing the conflict that no-one actually sought, but which no-one Sweden, Chile, Malaysia and Nigeria, and India's Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, did enough to prevent.” 'Reducing Nuclear Dangers' resolution. the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted a resolution The safest nuclear weapon by far is one that does not As regards point 2, the letter recalls U.S.-Russian which “Expressed deep concern at increased nuclear exist at all. The majority of the worlds governments and agreement in 1998 to establish a Joint Data Exchange threats arising from the deteriorating relationship parliaments, not to mention NGOs, see the elimination Center. It followed a 'near miss' in 1995, when a between Russia and NATO”, and “Called on all OSCE of nuclear weapons not as something it might be 'nice' weather research rocket was mistaken for a U.S. SLBM States with nuclear weapons or under extended nuclear to do 'in some century', but as an urgent existential (submarine-launched ballistic missile). That agreement deterrence relationships to reduce the risks of a priority. has been reaffirmed a number of times, most recently nuclear war by taking nuclear weapons off high-alert, The nuclear disarmament groups, therefore, urge the in 2010. But the Joint Data Exchange Center has yet to and by adopting no-first use policies”. nuclear weapons states to move toward “the complete be set up. Like the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, signatories of and total elimination of nuclear weapons, as mandated Referring to point 3, the letter says: “A series of the letter are deeply alarmed over the direction in by the Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty (NPT) itself, as measures concerning nuclear posture, notably 'no first which the confrontation over the borders of the an urgent existential priority”. use' doctrines and a decision to no longer target cities Ukraine may be going. [IDN-InDepthNews – 07 October 2015] (as noted above cities are the most prolific source of “What is placed at risk, in the very worst case, is Photo: Tupolev Tu-160 the black smoke that brings about nuclear winter) civilization itself, and potentially, human survival. This is Credit: Wikimedia Commons - Alex Beltyukov would also make a vast contribution to the reduction of not of course to say that a completely 'apocalyptic' the risk of nuclear catastrophe.” event sequence is what WILL take place, or even that Addressing the Russian and U.S. Presidents, the this is the most likely outcome of such a sequence.” disarmament groups “strongly echo and endorse” the The signatories “hope and pray” that nothing of the concern – “if not alarm” – expressed by Generals James sort takes place and that a peaceful negotiated settle- Cartwright and Vladimir Dvorkin, former commanders ment of issues arising from the 2014 Ukraine crisis will of American and Russian missile forces, from Interna be eventually reached by all parties, including Russia.

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 31 Kazakh and Japan Go ‘Aggressive’ for Entry into Force of Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty

By Fabíola Ortiz fundamental instrument in the field of nuclear disarma- the time of the final negotiations late 1990’s. UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - “We will be working very ment and non-proliferation.” CTBT establishes a global network of monitoring aggressively to achieve the goal of making the world Pope Francis backs such fervent appeals. He reminded facilities and allows for on-site inspections of suspicious nuclear free by 2045,” when the United Nations will the UN General Assembly delegates on September 25 events anywhere in the world. The overall accord mark its 100th birthday, declared Erlan Idrissov, Foreign that “there is an urgent need to work for a world free contains a preamble, 17 treaty articles, two treaty Minister of the Central Asian Republic of Kazakhstan. of nuclear weapons”. annexes and a protocol detailing verification proce- Idrissov was addressing the 9th Ministerial-level Speaking at the opening of the Conference, UN dures. Conference on Facilitating the Entry into force of the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that “the CTBT is The Kazakh foreign minister recalled that 24 years ago Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on essential to realizing our vision of a world free of when the country became independent after the September 29 at the United Nations headquarters in nuclear weapons. It will help ensure that the interna- collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan had over 1,400 New York. He was co-chair with Japan’s Foreign tional community is no longer forced to live in the nuclear warheads. It was a nuclear weapon test site Minister Fumio Kishida. shadow of nuclear weapons”. and hosted biological and chemical weapon production The Kazakh Foreign Minister warned delegates he He also promised: “As a former Chairman of the CTBT facilities. would be “blunt, even undiplomatic” in pushing for a Preparatory Committee, I am personally committed to “In our first decade of independence, we decided to legally binding nuclear test-ban. “Our countries (Kazakh doing everything possible to see this Treaty enter into dismantle all Soviet weapons systems and facilities and and Japan) have the moral right to be aggressive about force,” adding jokingly that in line with his name were at the forefront of signing important international abolishing nuclear weapons.” “spelled B-A-N, I am determined to ban any nuclear nonproliferation treaties,” said Idrissov. Co-chair Kishida highlighted Japan’s historical role and tests”. “We decided to help the world to become safer and obligation to work with the international community to CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo expressed that decision inspired others. Achieving a nuclear free ban nuclear tests and nuclear weapons, making his ardent wish that more be done and that Member world is a difficult task. As a young nation we want to particular reference to this year’s 70th anniversaries of States show real leadership in advancing the entry into inspire everyone. Both Japan and Kazakhstan suffered the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the force of the Treaty. the ugliest effects of the militarism of nuclear weapons. experience of nuclear-bomb survivors, the Hibakusha. “2016 will mark twenty years since the CTBT was The 500 nuclear tests that happened in Kazakhstan is a The Conference was attended by a large number of opened for signature. I don’t regard this as a reason for great reminder of the most devastating danger of this Foreign Ministers from ratifying states, as well as celebration. Almost twenty years later, we find our- type of weapon,” he said. Members of the Group of Eminent Persons (GEM), selves at a conference provided for under Article XIV of Japanese Foreign Minister Kishida, Conference including the EU High Representative Federica Mogh- the Treaty to accelerate entry into force,” Zerbo told co-chair, recalled the 70th anniversary of the atomic erini, former UK Secretary of State for Defence Lord IDN. bombing of Hiroshima, his hometown, and Nagasaki. Desmond Browne, Commissioner of the Japan Atomic The Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty was The banning of nuclear testing is an effective pillar in Energy Commission Ambassador Nobuyasu Abe, former opened for signature in 1996 and aims to put a cap on nuclear disarmament and CTBT has contributed to UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela the development of nuclear weapons as well as prohibit enhancing the norm of nuclear test ban, he argued. Kane, and CTBTO Executive Secretary Emeritus Wolf- all nuclear weapon test explosions worldwide. “We must accelerate our efforts towards the early gang Hoffmann. But it has not entered into force because eight states entry into force of the treaty.” The Conference, also known as the Article XIV Confer- have yet to ratify it. These are: China, Egypt, India, Iran, Kishida also highlighted the need to promote further ence in accordance with the relevant Treaty article, Israel, Pakistan, United States and Democratic People's development of the International Monitoring System adopted a Final Declaration, which affirms “that a Republic of Korea (DPRK). They are the remaining (IMS) and provide training for operators of the National universal and effectively verifiable Treaty constitutes a States from a list of 44 nuclear technology holders at Data Center that supports IMS.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 32 IMS is a worldwide network that will help to verify According to Des Browne, member of the CTBT Group “If the U.S. thinks well and considers the long term compliance, detect and confirm violations of the CTBT. of Eminent Persons (GEM) and Vice-Chairman of the benefits for the country they should support the Today, the IMS is 80 percent complete and currently Nuclear Threat Initiative, the answer still lies in politics. ratification because such weapon can be hardly used. consists of 254 monitoring stations and 10 of the 16 While the U.S. was the first signatory (September 24, So why do you need to keep on testing? They do not radionuclide laboratories that have been certified. 1996) and one of the instigators of the treaty, it has not need to test anymore; they have conducted 1,000 In order the make the necessary preparations to ratified due to domestic politics. nuclear tests, the biggest number among the countries. implement the CTBT, a Preparatory Commission for the “Some barriers are related to international politics. In That time is over. It will become a useless and unusable Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization China’s case, they have made very clear they would asset,” Abe told IDN. (CTBTO) was set up in 1996 in Vienna. ratify a minute after the U.S. does so. If we could break A world free of nuclear tests and nuclear weapons is Zerbo agrees with the Kazakh Foreign Minister that a any of resistance in the Middle East countries, (the achievable by 2045, believes Des Browne. Thirty years more “aggressive approach” is required. “They want to ratification) could come in a cascade effect. The same ago, a meeting between U.S. President Ronald Reagan act constructively but in an aggressive manner to be thing applies to India and Pakistan: it is about regional and his counterpart from the Soviet Union, Mikhail able to get this treaty closed and to go beyond the politics,” said Browne to IDN. Gorbachev, proposed banning all ballistic missiles. This normal diplomatic chart which is: we call upon all The U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken meeting took place in 1986. countries to ratify, wait two years and again go through confirmed the country’s engagement in pushing the “For ten minutes they opened up the possibility of a the rhetoric. We need to have a concrete plan of action treaty to be approved by the Senate. world free of nuclear weapons. I personally think that and a timeframe of what we want to achieve,” he “Given the clear and convincing evidence we know the state of politics at the moment has to be step by added. that to enforce the comprehensive ban treaty is good step but it is possible. It will happen unexpectedly. The Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO is for the security of the U.S. and it is good for the Things can change very quickly. I don’t think we failed intended to be created as soon as all nations ratify the international security. It is a key step in diminishing at all,” Des Browne insisted. treaty. However, Zerbo argues that even if the organi- world’s reliance on nuclear weapons and reduce the [IDN-InDepthNews – 30 September 2015] zation has not been officially created, they are already risk of a nuclear arm race,” Blinken said. working accordingly as if it was an organization itself. He added: “The U.S. is committed to the treaty and we “We are a group of more than 400 people who are are working aggressively to build the case at home for working effectively. We cannot continue engaging ratification. Other States should also be pursuing people, spending tax payers’ money, building such an ratification and ensuring their plans for how they are infrastructure like the International Monitoring System doing so, there is no reason to wait on any country. and then say that it is not ready in entering into force,” CTBT is not an abstract concept for the theoretical the CTBTO Executive Secretary said. world. It is a firm and a certain step to a peace and Zerbo considers the year of 2006 as a landmark when security for our own citizens and to our own people of they detected the DPRK nuclear test. “We proved to the world.” the international community that we can detect World history has proven that nuclear weapons are nuclear test explosion with efficiency. We have a destructive and indiscriminate causing health and framework that works effectively to provide States environmental impacts. For Nobuyasu Abe, Vice- what was required under the treatment, that is, giving Chairman at the Japan Atomic Energy Commission and data, showing we can provide information that any also a member of GEM, people realize this kind of nuclear test explosion would go undetected.” weapon shouldn’t be used anymore.

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 33 U.S. 100th Member State to Join Nuke Terrorism Treaty

By Thalif Deen “And yet we must not delude ourselves into over Nuclear weapons can cause massive death and estimating the significance of this action when more destruction; any population faced with this possibility UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - A 1997 movie titled “The urgent treaties like the Comprehensive Nuclear Test would be terrorized, he argued. Peacemaker” –partly shot outside the United Nations – Ban Treaty (CTBT) await ratification by the United “Think of the people in any number of countries in the dramatised the story of a Yugoslav terrorist who States and seven other states in order to ensure its Middle East who are told by the U.S. President or some acquires a backpack-sized nuclear weapon, gone entry into force rendering permanent the norm against senior official that ‘all options are on the table’, imply- missing after a train wreck in rural Russia, and brings it nuclear weapon testing – an important brake on the ing, of course, the use of nuclear weapons.” to New York to detonate it outside U.N. headquarters. development of nuclear weapons,” he added. Under any fair and just definition of terrorism, anyone Was it another Hollywood fantasy? Or a disaster As long as 15,850 nuclear warheads are held by nine who uses a nuclear weapon to threaten another waiting to happen? countries – 93 percent with the United States and population would be a terrorist. This includes those Conscious of the remote possibility of a terrorist group Russia – their use in a war, caused by deliberate who use nuclear weapons “just for deterrence,” he arming itself with stolen nuclear weapons, the Interna- political intent or by accident and by nation states or declared. tional Convention for the Suppression of Acts of non state actors – remain a frightening reality with Remember that the ability to credibly project terror is Nuclear Terrorism was adopted by the U.N. General appalling humanitarian consequences and irreversible ultimately at the heart of the strategy of deterrence Assembly back in April 2005 and entered into force in ecological and genetic effects, said Dhanapala, who also and the safety that it is supposed to derive from July 2007. serves as a member of the Board of Sponsors of The deterrence is, as Winston Churchill proclaimed, “the Currently, there are 99 states parties who have ratified Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and a governing board sturdy child of terror.” the treaty, including the nuclear powers China, France, member of the Stockholm International Peace Research “I think the challenge for those seeking peace is to India, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Institute (SIPRI) shift the discourse away from “nuclear terrorism by On Wednesday, the United States became the 100th The Nuclear Terrorism Convention is described as part non-state actors” and turn the attention onto nuclear state party when it handed over the instruments of of global efforts to prevent terrorists from gaining weapon states, which base their policies on the threat ratification to the U.N. Treaty Section. access to weapons of mass destruction. of nuclear death and destruction, and the urgency of “This is good news – as with the ratification of any It details offences relating to unlawful and intentional disarming them,” said Dr Ramana who is author of Treaty or Convention limiting the use of nuclear possession and use of radioactive material or radioac- several publications, including“The Power of Promise: weapons by a major nuclear weapon state,” Jayantha tive devices, and use or damage of nuclear facilities. Examining Nuclear Energy in India.” Dhanapala, the former U.N. Under-Secretary-General The convention is also designed to promote coopera- Rose Gottemoeller, U.S. Under Secretary for Arms for Disarmament Affairs, told IPS. tion among countries through the sharing of informa- Control and International Security said last week that He said it is useful to recall that it was Russia that tion and the provision of assistance for investigations when it comes to nuclear terrorism, “we are safer now initiated this Convention in 2005 and to date there are and extraditions. than we were five years ago, but more remains to be 115 signatories and 99 states parties. Dr. M.V. Ramana, a physicist and lecturer at Princeton done.” “Nuclear terrorism has been widely feared especially University’s Program on Science and Global Security The United States, she said, will continue to work with after 9/11 and it is well know that non-state actors like and the Nuclear Futures Laboratory, told IPS: “I would international partners to ensure that dangerous nuclear Al Qaeda and now ISIL (Islamic State in the Levant) are like to take the conversation in a different direction and materials are accounted for and secured worldwide. engaged in a quest for nuclear materials to make a ask what is nuclear terrorism?” “Unending vigilance is required if we are to ensure that nuclear weapon, however rudimentary,” said Dhana- He said Webster’s dictionary defines terrorism as “the terrorist groups who may seek to acquire these materi- pala, who has been President of the Pugwash Confer- systematic use of terror especially as a means of als are never able to do so.” ences on Science and World Affairs, since 2007. coercion.” She said the United States is the largest national contributor to the IAEA’s (International Atomic Energy

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 34 Agency) Nuclear Security Fund, providing more than 70 million dollars since 2010. These funds support cost-free experts, mission and technical visits to Member States, the development of nuclear security guidance and best practices, and the Incident and Trafficking Database. She said the State Department’s Counter Nuclear Smuggling Program (CNSP) is also working with key international partners to strengthen capacity to investigate nuclear smuggling networks, secure materi- als in illegal circulation, and prosecute the criminals who are involved. Countries such as Georgia and Moldova are to be commended for their recent arrests of criminals attempting to traffic highly enriched uranium (HEU); significant progress has been made in this area. Unfor- tunately, continued seizures of weapon-usable nuclear materials indicate that these materials are still available on the black market, she pointed out. According to the United Nations, some of the key provisions of the Convention include: the criminaliza- tion of planning, threatening, or carrying out acts of nuclear terrorism; the requirement for States to criminalize these offenses through national legislation and to establish penalties in line with the gravity of such crimes; conditions under which States may establish jurisdiction for offenses; and guidelines for extradition and other measures of punishment. Additionally, there is the requirement for States to make every effort to adopt appropriate measures to ensure the protection of radioactive material; and the distinction that the Convention does not cover the activities of armed forces during an armed conflict or military exercise and cannot be interpreted as address- ing the “legality of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons by States.” (IPS | 30 September 2015) Photo: Jayantha Dhanapala

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 35 Japan and Kazakh to Facilitate Entry into Force of Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty

By Kanya D’Almeida UNITED NATIONS (IDN) - Ahead of a major international defunct Soviet Union. Between 1949 and 1989 the area atolls (which served as testing grounds for the U.S., the conference on September 29 at the UN headquarters in endured some 456 nuclear tests, which directly UK and France), to Novaya Zemlya, the “remote New York, pressure is mounting on the eight states impacted the health of an estimated 200,000 residents ice-bound archipelago in the Arctic Ocean” that served whose backing is vital to the entering-into-force of the including an increased incidence of cancer and other for many years as the Soviet Union’s testing site. Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT): China, conditions related to radiation exposure. With its global network of nearly 300 seismic, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Egypt, Given that 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the hydroacoustic, infrasound and radionuclide detecting India, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and the United States. U.S. atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki – stations, the CTBTO has made it much harder for states Negotiated at the Geneva Conference on Disarma- resulting in upwards of 220,000 deaths – Japan is also to conduct covert nuclear tests – be they in the atmo- ment and adopted by the United Nations General naturally leading the diplomatic charge to prevent sphere, underground, or underwater. Assembly on September 10, 1996, the CTBT boasts 183 nuclear testing. Yet without the eight crucial signatures of key nuclear signatures and 164 ratifications, but remains hamstrung Acknowledging that the summit has a “big agenda” to weapons states, the Treaty is powerless to impose by the refusal of eight of the 44 so-called Annex II tackle, Ambassador Kazutoshi Aikawa, Director-General sanctions or other punitive measures on violators, even nations (those that possessed nuclear facilities at the of Disarmament, Non-Proliferation and Science Depart- if tests are detected. time of negotiations) to sign and ratify the Treaty. ment with Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told IDN In an interview with IDN at the August disarmament A comprehensive ban on nuclear testing is widely seen he is “hopeful that representatives from the eight conference, former United Nations Under Secretary- as an essential component of, and the final barrier to, [outlying] states will join us in making this meeting a General for Disarmament Affairs Jayantha Dhanapala global nuclear disarmament and a non-proliferation success.” expressed concern about the “fragility” of the prevail- regime. In the five decades between 1945 and 1996 – the year ing political reality vis-à-vis nuclear testing. The upcoming Article XIV Conference (or the Confer- the CTBT was adopted – the United States carried out “We are aware the DPRK might test, and we’ve also ence on Facilitating Entry into Force of the CTBT) is over 1,000 nuclear tests and the Soviet Union con- heard from William Perry, former U.S. defense secre- expected to target these eight nuclear-weapons states, ducted over 700. France also ran upwards of 200 tests tary, that Russian scientists are pressuring the political in the hope of paving the way to a legally binding norm during this time period, while the UK and China were leadership of that country – which has signed and against nuclear testing. each responsible for some 45 tests. ratified the treaty – to resume testing,” he said. Speaking to IDN on the sidelines of the 25th UN According to the Vienna-based Comprehensive “If this is true then there is a grave danger that the Conference on Disarmament Issues that took place in Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), the CTBT is in some kind of peril,” added Dhanapala, who the Japanese city of Hiroshima on August 26-28, Deputy body tasked with monitoring compliance with the also serves as president of the Pugwash Conferences on Foreign Minister for Kazakhstan Yerzhan Ashikbayev treaty, only three countries have undertaken nuclear Science and World Affairs. explained that supporting the CTBT is a “natural stance” explosions since 1996: India and Pakistan (in 1998), and “Since the UN Security Council is the custodian of for his country, which will be co-chairing the September the DPRK (in 2006, 2009 and 2013). international peace and security, a unanimous resolu- 29 Article XIV conference along with Japan. In total, some 2,050 tests were carried out since the tion stating that the continuation of the moratorium The 18,000-square-km Semipalatinsk Test Site in end of World War II in over 60 different locations against nuclear testing is a fundamental element of northeastern Kazakhstan was the primary testing around the globe. The CTBTO says these test sites peace and security would help bolster the legitimacy of ground for the nuclear weapons programme of the now “offer stunning contrasts”, from tropical South Pacific the CTBT,” he stated.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 36 Indeed, the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon tion exposure is known to cause leukaemia, as well as a evolved,” he said. “Powerful nations want to keep their himself has made personal appeals to the eight states cancers of the thyroid, lung and breast. power and privileges.” to ratify the treaty. A chapter on the effects of nuclear tests on the CTBTO At present, Ashikbayev estimates there are 16,000 In a statement delivered to the world body on Sep- website explains that “studies and evaluations including warheads in the arsenals of nuclear powers, capable of tember 10, the International Day Against Nuclear Tests, an assessment by Arjun Makhijani on the health effects “destroying the earth several times over.” Ban said, “I have met with victims of nuclear tests. I of nuclear weapon complexes, estimate that cancer Data from the Arms Control Association suggest that have witnessed the lasting societal, environmental and fatalities due to the global radiation doses from the Russia and the United States account for 90 percent of economic damage nuclear tests have caused […]. Many atmospheric nuclear testing programmes of the five the global nuclear warhead inventory, with 7,700 and have never recovered from the legacies of nuclear nuclear-weapon States amount to hundreds of thou- 7,100 weapons respectively. France follows at a distant testing – including poisoned groundwater, cancer, birth sands.” third place with 300 warheads, while China boasts 250 defects and radioactive fallout.” Furthermore, the CTBTO states, “A 1991 study by the weapons and the UK is in possession of 225. Welcoming the voluntary moratoria on testing International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear Pakistan and India have 110 and 100 nukes respec- imposed by many nuclear-armed states, Ban added: War (IPPNW) estimated that the radiation and radioac- tively, Israel 80 and the DPRK 10 – though experts say “Moratoria are no substitute for a CTBT in force. The tive materials from atmospheric testing taken in by these numbers are harder to verify. three nuclear tests conducted by the Democratic people up until the year 2000 would cause 430,000 Approximately 10,000 warheads are in military service People’s Republic of Korea are proof of this. cancer deaths, some of which had already occurred by and the remaining 6,000 are reportedly awaiting “Almost two decades after the CTBT was negotiated, it the time the results were published. dismantlement, according to the Arms Control Associa- is long past time for the treaty to enter into force,” he “The study predicted that roughly 2.4 million people tion. concluded. could eventually die from cancer as a result of atmo- [IDN-InDepthNews – 21 September 2015] According to the National Resources Defense Council, spheric testing.” nuclear tests carried out between 1945 and 1980 Given these grim realities, entering-into-force of the accounted for 510 megatons; of these, atmospheric CTBT is an urgent task, but while many have admitted tests alone yielded 428 mt – the equivalent of 29,000 that ratification by all required parties is not an “if” but Hiroshima-sized bombs. a “when”, even experts are hard-pressed to put an While the amount of radioactivity released by each exact date on that “when”. test depends largely on the size, scale and type of Asked when the CTBT will become a legal reality, explosion, countless scientific studies have documented Ambassador Sérgio de Queiroz Duarte, former UN High their adverse health and environmental impacts, Representative for Disarmament Affairs and President including severe air and groundwater pollution, damage of the 2005 NPT Review Conference told IDN, “This is to flora and fauna and, for humans, injuries to internal what was once called the 60,000-dollar question. Now organs, skin, eyes and even cells. it is a 60-million-dollar question and soon it will be the Ionizing radiation, the umbrella term for various 60-billion-dollar question but still – no answer.” particulate matter and rays given off by radioactive “The culprit is the situation of the world as it has materials, is a scientifically proven carcinogen. Radia

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 37 Nuke Test Ban Treaty Still in Limbo, U.N. Complains

By Thalif Deen signing or ratifying – “least of all, India under current He said the largest ever U.S. test was the 15Megaton Prime Minister Narendra Modi (although the nuclear Castle Bravo test, which contaminated the crew of the UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The Comprehensive Nuclear- disarmament movement in India has over the years Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon, bringing about an Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which was adopted by the U.N. advocated signature and ratification of the CTBT for agonizing slow death from radiation sickness, and General Assembly back in 1996, has still not come into India).” contaminating the Marshall Islands. force for one primary reason: eight key countries have Finally, he said, it includes China and one or two The largest nuclear test ever was carried out by the either refused to sign or have held back their ratifica- others who say they will ratify as soon as the United Soviets in the early ’60s in Novaya Zemlya, a large island tions. States has done so. above the arctic circle, and known as ‘Tsar Bomba’ The three who have not signed – India, North Korea At a high-level panel discussion last week to com- (King of Bombs), he noted. and Pakistan – and the five who have not ratified — the memorate International Day Against Nuclear Tests, Ban At 60 megatons, it vaporized the sacred hunting United States, China, Egypt, Iran and Israel – remain said: “The goal of ending nuclear tests has been a grounds of the Nenets people, sent fallout right around non-committal 19 years following the adoption of the leading concern throughout my diplomatic career. “ the world and caused the planet to ring like a bell with treaty. As Secretary-General, and depository of the Compre- seismic shock for hours. When the United Nations last week commemorated hensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, “I have made achiev- Hallam said the Soviets carried out around 800 nuclear International Day Against Nuclear Tests, Secretary- ing a legal ban on nuclear testing a personal priority.” tests, many of them at the Semipalatinsk test site, and General Ban Ki-moon appealed once again to all He said he has been to Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan, causing widespread radioactive contamination with remaining States – especially the eight holdovers — to the site of 456 tests, including some of the largest in catastrophic effects on local populations. sign and ratify the Treaty as “a critical step on the road history. In addition, nuclear tests have been carried out by the to a nuclear-weapons-free world.” “I have met with victims of nuclear tests. I have UK, (many of them in Maralinga and Emu Field, Austra- Currently, there is a voluntary moratoria on testing witnessed the lasting societal, environmental and lia), France (Algeria and the Pacific), China (Sinkiang), imposed by many nuclear-armed States. economic damage nuclear tests have caused.” India (Pokhran, Rajasthan) Pakistan (Baluchistan), and “But moratoria are no substitute for a CTBT in force. Since the first test in New Mexico 70 years ago, he the North Korean, French, Chinese, and British tests The three nuclear tests conducted by the Democratic pointed out, the world has endured over two thousand have all inflicted radiation-based disease and death on People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) are proof of nuclear tests. Those tests devastated pristine environ- local populations and participants. this,” Ban said. ments and local populations around the world. Nuclear testing is the backbone of nuclear arms-racing The warning comes amidst reports Tuesday that North Many have never recovered from the legacies of and proliferation. A resumption of nuclear testing, or Korea has re-started its programme to produce nuclear nuclear testing – including poisoned groundwater, the conducting of a new nuclear test by any country – weapons. cancer, birth defects and radioactive fallout, he noted. including the DPRK – helps to inch the world toward an But chances of all eight countries coming on board in “The best way to honour the victims of past tests is to abyss into which we hope it will never go, Hallam said. the not-too-distant future are remote, says John Hallam prevent any in the future,” he declared. The best way to halt proliferation and nail down a ‘no of the Human Survival Project (HSP) and People for The CTBT is a legally-binding, verifiable means by nuclear testing’ norm is for the Comprehensive Test Nuclear Disarmament (PND), a joint project between which to constrain the quantitative and qualitative Ban Treaty, which outlaws nuclear testing, to come into PND and the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at development of nuclear weapons. force, he declared. the University of Sydney, Australia. Hallam told IPS over 1100 nuclear tests were carried Meanwhile, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of “I think it is most unlikely that the recalcitrant 8 states out by the United States in Nevada, Alaska, the Mar- Kazakhstan has launched an international Project, will sign and ratify by 2016,” Hallam told IPS. shall Islands, other parts of the Pacific, and in outer called ATOM (the acronym for Abolish Testing. Our They include the United States itself, which though space. Mission), a worldwide e-campaign, calling on world has signed, he said, but the Republicans have made it Tests carried out in Nevada resulted in large-scale leaders to end nuclear tests, once and for all. very clear they will not ratify. contamination of downwind inhabitants and large-scale (IPS | 16 September 2015) Hallam said this also includes both India and Pakistan morbidity. who have made it clear they have no intention of either

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 38 Opinion: Can Nuclear War be Avoided?

He said the largest ever U.S. test was the 15Megaton By Gunnar Westberg * When Robert McNamara was U.S. Secretary of Defence Mankind thus had a slightly better than even chance of Castle Bravo test, which contaminated the crew of the in the mid-1960s, he issued an order that to be able to not being exterminated. We were lucky. GÖTEBORG, Sweden (IPS) - The Canberra Commission Japanese fishing boat Lucky Dragon, bringing about an fire missiles from submarines, the commanding officer Maybe the risk is smaller today. But with the risk of on the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons had as mem- agonizing slow death from radiation sickness, and must have received a code which permitted the launch. proliferation, with new funds allocated to nuclear bers former leading politicians or military officers, contaminating the Marshall Islands. However, the navy did not want to be prevented from weapons research and with the increasing tension in among others a British Field Marshal, an American The largest nuclear test ever was carried out by the firing on its own initiative, such as in the case that international relations, the risk may be increasing again. General, an American Secretary of Defence and a Soviets in the early ’60s in Novaya Zemlya, a large island contact with headquarters was interrupted. The initial As long as nuclear weapons exist the risk exists. The risk French Prime Minister. above the arctic circle, and known as ‘Tsar Bomba’ code of 00000000 was for this reason retained for of global omnicide, of Assured Destruction. The commission unanimously agreed in its report in (King of Bombs), he noted. many years and was generally known. McNamara, It is nuclear weapons or us. We cannot co-exist. One of 1996 that “the proposition that nuclear weapons can At 60 megatons, it vaporized the sacred hunting however, did not know this until many years after he us will have to go. be retained in perpetuity and never be used – acciden- grounds of the Nenets people, sent fallout right around left the government. A prohibition against nuclear weapons is necessary. tally or by decision – defies credibility. The only com- the world and caused the planet to ring like a bell with A Soviet admiral once told me that as late as around And it is possible. plete defence is the elimination of nuclear weapons seismic shock for hours. 1980 he could fire the missiles from a submarine (3 September 2015) and assurance that they will never be produced again.” Hallam said the Soviets carried out around 800 nuclear without a code. * Gunnar Westberg, Professor of Medicine in Göteborg, So that’s it: Nuclear weapons will be used if they are tests, many of them at the Semipalatinsk test site, and When systems of control of the launch systems are Sweden, and Co-President of International Physicians allowed to remain with us. And even a “small” nuclear causing widespread radioactive contamination with discussed, we often learn – as a kind of post scriptum – for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) from 2004 war, using one percent or less of the world’s nuclear catastrophic effects on local populations. that there is a Plan B: If all communication with HQ is to 2008, describes himself as “generally concerned weapons, might cause a worldwide famine leading to In addition, nuclear tests have been carried out by the dead and the commanders believe the war is on, about with what little wisdom our world is governed”. the death of a billion humans or more. UK, (many of them in Maralinga and Emu Field, Austra- missiles can be fired. We are never told how this works. This article was originally published by the Transna- Lt Colonel Bruce Blair was for several years in the 1970s lia), France (Algeria and the Pacific), China (Sinkiang), But there is a plan B. tional Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF) commander of U.S. crews with the duty to launch India (Pokhran, Rajasthan) Pakistan (Baluchistan), and What is the situation today? Can an unauthorised intercontinental nuclear missiles. “I knew how to fire the North Korean, French, Chinese, and British tests launch of nuclear weapons occur? Colonel Blair says the missiles, I needed no permission,” he states. In the have all inflicted radiation-based disease and death on “Yes”. Mistakes, misunderstandings, hacker encroach- 1990s he was charged with making a review for the U.S. local populations and participants. ments, human mistakes – there are always risks. Senate on the question: “Is unauthorised firing of U.S. Nuclear testing is the backbone of nuclear arms-racing After the end of the Cold War, we have learnt about nuclear weapons a real possibility?” and proliferation. A resumption of nuclear testing, or several “close calls”. There was the Cuban missile crisis Blair’s answer was “Yes”, and the risk is not insignifi- the conducting of a new nuclear test by any country – and especially the “Soviet submarine left behind”. cant. including the DPRK – helps to inch the world toward an There was the Petrov Incident in September 1983. On Hiroshima Day, Aug. 6, this year, a major newspaper abyss into which we hope it will never go, Hallam said. There was the possibly worst crisis – worst but little in Sweden, Aftonbladet, carried an interview with The best way to halt proliferation and nail down a ‘no known – of the NATO exercise ‘Able Archer’ in Novem- Colonel Blair, now head of the Global Zero movement nuclear testing’ norm is for the Comprehensive Test ber 1983 when the Soviet leaders expected a NATO for the elimination of nuclear weapons. The reporter Ban Treaty, which outlaws nuclear testing, to come into attack any moment – and NATO had no insight into the asked: “Mr Blair, do you think that nuclear weapons will force, he declared. Soviet paranoia. be used again?” Mr Blair was silent for a while and then Meanwhile, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of There are numerous other dangerous incidents about responded: “I am afraid it cannot be avoided. A data Kazakhstan has launched an international Project, which we have less information. code shorter than a Twitter message could be enough.” called ATOM (the acronym for Abolish Testing. Our Martin Hellman, a mathematician and expert in risk Blair reminds us of the story of the ‘Permissive Action Mission), a worldwide e-campaign, calling on world analysis, guesses that the risk of a major nuclear war Link’, a security device for nuclear weapons, the leaders to end nuclear tests, once and for all. may have been as high as one percent per year during purpose of which is to prevent their unauthorised (IPS | 16 September 2015) the 40 Cold War years. That sums up to 40 percent. arming or detonation.

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 39 Opinion: Campaign to End Nuclear Tests - Kazakhstan Launches ATOM

By Kairat Abdrakhmanov* Considering the actions taken by my country, Kazakh- stan thus has the full right to call for the universal and UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - Despite United Nations prompt measures on the Path to Zero. This frightening General Assembly resolutions since 1946, calling for an data cited here and the 1996 Advisory of the Interna- end to lethal arsenal, the possession of nuclear weap- tional Court of Justice should spur the global commu- ons has continued to be a symbol of scientific sophisti- nity to act more decisively for the ultimate and irrevo- cation or military power, until 29 August 1991, when cable prohibition of nuclear tests and weapons. Kazakhstan, upon gaining independence, closed its President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan has Nuclear Test Site in Semipalatinsk – the second largest launched a worldwide e-campaign, an international in the world. project, called ATOM (Abolish Testing. Our Mission), This action and the renunciation of our nuclear arsenal calling on world leaders to end nuclear tests, once and – the fourth largest in the world, were unprecedented for all. To draw attention to the campaign, Karpek acts to demonstrate to the world that Kazakhstan does Kuyukov, the Goodwill Ambassador of the ATOM not need these powerful nuclear weapons tests and project, himself a victim of nuclear radiation, has weapons. travelled from Kazakhstan and is here in New York to The closure of Semipalatinsk led the way for the share his life experiences with us. closure of other sites in Nevada, Novaya Zemlya, Lop Despite being the largest producer and supplier of Nur, Moruroa, Kiribati and others. uranium in the world, Kazakshtan’s firm position The detonation of over 600 warheads, one fourth of demonstrates that harmony and cooperation can be all 2000 nuclear tests globally, were conducted in a stronger armaments for global peace and security than span of four decades on the territory of the Semipala- any weaponry. tinsk test site covering a total area is 18.000 sq. km, Disarmament critics still insist that nuclear weapons affecting over 1.5 million people and a land mass of cannot be dis-invented and that the nuclear genie is 300,000 sq. km. development agenda. We must thus have the political well out of the bottle. Kazakhstan and several other In fact, the entire territory of Kazakhstan, was one big will to invest vast resources that would be available as a countries have proven that it is within our power to put polygon, comprising of 11 units spread over the result of nuclear disarmament to meet compelling this monstrous genie back into the bottle. country. Besides nuclear, these included also air, space, human needs and achieve a peaceful and secure world. Kazakhstan was amongst the first countries to sign the missile defence and warning systems, as well as Today, a new impetus is needed to move the disarma- Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT). My high-powered laser weapons test sites. Among these I ment machinery forward, considering that the 2015 country is committed to the Treaty, and along with would also like to mention the deadly biochemical and review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Japan will co-chair the International Conference on bacteriological weapons tested in the Aral Sea (which Nuclear Weapons (NPT) did not fulfil its anticipated Article XIV to CTBT on 29 September 2015, to work was the Barkhan Test Site on the former Renaissance outcome. We commend the three meetings held in intensely to bring its entry into force. Island). Oslo, Nayarit and Vienna, and the many unilateral, This year marks the 70th Anniversary of the United bilateral and collective efforts of several countries, Nations and the start of a transformative Post-2015 together with the dynamic efforts of civil society.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 40 These actions serve as a wake-up call to unite for a This year, the Central Asian states adopted an Action -as the main donors of the project – that the Bank nuclear-weapon-free world. We, therefore, welcome Plan to strengthen nuclear security in the region. Now became a reality. the momentum gained by the Humanitarian Pledge put we are elaborating regional instruments for the 5. A most recent example of cooperation is related to forward by Austria, which Kazakhstan endorsed on 10 prevention of illicit trafficking in nuclear materials and the unique Cosmodrome Baikonur located in Kazakh- July 2015. Likewise, we seek support at the forthcoming combating nuclear terrorism. stan – the only site in the world from where space First Committee Meeting in October this year for the 3. In 2014, we worked to ensure the safety and crafts are launched to the International Space Station. initiative of our President calling on the international preservation of hundreds of kilograms of nuclear On 2 September 2015, the spacecraft “Soyuz” was community to adopt the Universal Declaration on the material, remaining in the galleries at the Massif launched with a new crew, comprising of Kazakh, Achievement of a Nuclear-Weapon-Free World. We do Degelen, also known as Plutonium Mountain, located at Russian and Danish cosmonauts, the latter from the not consider this document as the basis for a major the former Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site. This European Space Agency. This, once again should inspire debate or tying down the United Nations disarmament measure will prevent leakage and improper use of us to work together with hope for the future. machinery. Its value lies in the fact that, despite these materials. The constant and perennial trilateral I would like to quote President Nazarbayev, who at the ongoing disagreements on the means to achieve cooperation between Kazakhstan, Russia and the U.S., Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague reminded the nuclear disarmament, there is full agreement on the was announced in Seoul in 2012 by the Presidents of world that “general and complete nuclear disarma- fundamental goal of a world free of nuclear weapons. the three countries. It is a striking proof that only a ment” is the only guarantee of nuclear security. He said I would like to point to other examples of successful spirit of trust and mutual understanding will make our that we should all live up to our responsibilities to our cooperation between the East and West with the world secure. Today Kazakhstan is actively preparing for citizens and the global community to deliver political participation of Kazakhstan: the Fourth Summit to be held in Washington D.C., in rather than military solutions in the name of interna- 1. When our country became the “epicentre of the 2016 and will host a preparatory Sherpas Meeting in tional peace. It is therefore the collective responsibility world” after renouncing its nuclear arsenal, it was the Almaty from 2-4 November 2015. and commitment of everyone, to increase the momen- collaboration with the Russian Federation and the U.S. 4. Another significant achievement has been the tum for anti-tests and anti-nuclear weapons and to find that made possible the removal and disposal of our Agreement signed on 27 August 2015 by the Govern- and implement such peaceful solutions so that we do nuclear warheads and missiles, as well as the destruc- ment of Kazakhstan and the International Atomic not forget our common humanity. tion and decommissioning the infrastructure of the Energy Agency (IAEA) for establishing the International (IPS | 12 September 2015) former test site. Bank of Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) in 2017 in Eastern *Ambassador Kairat Abdrakhmanov is Permanent 2. Kazakhstan, along with other countries of the Kazakhstan. This initiative is yet another concrete Representative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the region, established the Central Asian Nulear-Free-Zone contribution of Kazakhstan in strengthening the United Nations with the signing of the Treaty of Semipalatinsk in 2006, non-proliferation regime, and eliminating lacunae Photo: Kairat Abdrakhmanov, Permanent of Represen- which speedily came into force in 2009. In May 2014, existing in the international legal framework. The Bank tative of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the United representatives of the “nuclear five” (the P5) signed a will allow Member States the right to reliable access to Nations. Protocol on negative security assurances to the partici- fuel for peaceful uses of nuclear energy. It was again Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten pant states of that Treaty, of which four have already the collaboration between the East and West, particu- ratified it. larly, Kazakhstan, the P5, as well as the European Union, Norway, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 41 Opinion: Nuclear States Do Not Comply with the Non-Proliferation Treaty

By Farhang Jahanpour* 1 January 1967, it is not possible for India, Pakistan, countries. Israeli officials tried hard to prevent the OXFORD (IPS) - Article Six of the Non-Proliferation Israel or North Korea to be regarded as nuclear weapon publication of those documents. In 1977, South Africa Treaty (NPT) makes it obligatory for nuclear states to states. signed a pact with Israel that included the manufactur- get rid of their nuclear weapons as part of a bargain All those countries are in violation of the NPT, and ing of at least six nuclear bombs. that requires the non-nuclear states not to acquire providing them with nuclear assistance, such as the U.S. The 1995 Non-Proliferation Treaty Review and nuclear weapons. Apart from the NPT provisions, there agreement with India to supply it with nuclear reactors Extension Conference also called for “the early estab- have been a number of other rulings that have rein- and advanced nuclear technology, constitutes viola- lishment by regional parties of a Middle East zone free forced those requirements. tions of the Treaty. The same applies to U.S. military of nuclear and all other WMDs and their delivery However, while nuclear states have vigorously pur- cooperation with Israel and Pakistan. systems”. The international community has ignored sued a campaign of non-proliferation, they have Nuclear states are guilty of proliferation these resolutions by not pressing Israel to give up its violated many NPT and other international regulations. Paragraph 14 of the binding U.N. Security Council nuclear weapons. Indeed, any call for a nuclear free An advisory opinion of the International Court of Resolution 687 that called for the disarmament of Iraq zone in the Middle East has been opposed by Israel and Justice in 1996 stated: “There exists an obligation to also specified the establishment of a zone free of the United States. pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotia- Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) in the Middle The 2000 NPT Review Conference called on “India, tions leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects East. Israel and Pakistan to accede to the Treaty as Non- under strict and effective international control.” It was clearly understood by all the countries that Nuclear Weapons States (NNWS) promptly and without Nuclear powers have ignored that opinion. joined the U.S.-led coalition to oust Saddam Hussein condition”. States Parties also agreed to “make deter- The nuclear states, especially the United States and from Kuwait that after the elimination of Iraqi WMDs, mined efforts” to achieve universality. Since 2000, little Russia, have further violated the Treaty by their efforts Israel would be required to get rid of its nuclear effort has been made to encourage India, Pakistan or to upgrade and diversity their nuclear weapons. The arsenal. Israel – and by extension the countries that Israel to accede as NNWS. United States has developed the “Reliable Replacement have not implemented that paragraph – have violated The declaration agreed by the Iranian government and Warhead”, a new type of nuclear warhead to extend that binding resolution. Indeed, both the United States visiting European Union foreign ministers (from Britain, the viability of its nuclear arsenal. and Israel are believed to maintain nuclear weapons in France and Germany) that reached an agreement on The United States and possibly Russia are also devel- the region. Iran’s accession to the Additional Protocol and suspen- oping tactical nuclear warheads with lower yields, During the apartheid era, Israel and South Africa sion of its enrichment for more than two years also which can be used on the battlefield without producing collaborated in manufacturing nuclear weapons, with called for the elimination of weapons of mass destruc- a great deal of radiation. Despite U.S. President Barack Israel leading the way. In 2010 it was reported that “the tion throughout the Middle East. Obama’s pledge to reduce and ultimately abolish ‘top secret’ minutes of meetings between senior The three foreign ministers made the following nuclear weapons, it has emerged that the United States officials from the two countries in 1975 show that commitment: “They will cooperate with Iran to pro- is in the process of developing new categories of South Africa’s Defence Minister P.W. Botha asked for mote security and stability in the region including the nuclear weapons, including B61-12 at a projected cost nuclear warheads and the then Israeli Defence Minister establishment of a zone free from weapons of mass of 348 billion dollars over the next decade Shimon Peres responded by offering them ‘in three destruction in the Middle East in accordance with the India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea cannot be sizes’.” objectives of the United Nations.” Twelve years after regarded as nuclear states. Since Article 9 of the NPT The documents were uncovered by an American signing that declaration, the three European countries defines Nuclear Weapon States (NWS) as those that academic, Sasha Polakow-Suransky, in research for a and the international community have failed to bring had manufactured and tested a nuclear device prior to book on the close relationship between the two about a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruc- tion.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 42 nuclear disarmament, nuclear states have refused to abide by the NPT regulations and get rid of their nuclear weapons. In his first major foreign policy speech in Prague on 5 April 2009, President Barack Obama spoke about his vision of getting rid of nuclear weapons. He said: “The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War… Today, the Cold War has disappeared but thousands of those weapons have not. In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up.” He went on to say: “So today, I state clearly and with conviction America’s commitment to seek the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons…” Sadly, those noble sentiments have not been put into action. On the contrary, all nuclear powers have continued to strengthen and modernise their nuclear arsenals. While they have been vigorous in punishing, on a selective basis, the countries that were suspected of developing nuclear weapons, they have not lived up to their side of the bargain to get rid of their nuclear weapons. (IPS | 5 September 2015) While, during the Cold War, the North Atlantic Treaty League of Nations after the First World War, the 1928 * Farhang Jahanpour is a former professor and dean of Organisation (NATO) refused to rule out first use of Pact of Paris, and the Charter of the United Nations. the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of nuclear weapons due to the proximity of Soviet forces A few ideas are common to all these definitions, Isfahan and a former Senior Research Fellow at Harvard to European capitals, this policy has not been revised namely that any military action should be based on University. He is a tutor in the Department of Continu- since the end of the Cold War. There have been self-defence, be in compliance with international law, ing Education and a member of Kellogg College, repeated credible reports that the Pentagon has been be proportionate, be a matter of last resort, and not University of Oxford.This is the second of a series of 10 considering the use of nuclear bunker-buster weapons target civilians and non-combatants. articles in which Jahanpour looks at various aspects and to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites. Other ideas flow from these: the emphasis on arbitra- implications of the framework agreement on Iran’s For the past 2,000 years and more, mankind has tried tion and the renunciation of first resort to force in the nuclear programme reached in July 2015 between Iran to define the requirements of a just war. During the settlement of disputes, and the principle of collective and the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, France, past few decades, some of these principles have been self- defence. It is difficult to see how the use of nuclear China and Germany, plus the European Union. enshrined in legally-binding international agreements weapons could be compatible with any of these Photo: Farhang Jahanpour and conventions. They include the Covenant of the requirements. Yet, despite many international calls for

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 43 ‘Generation of Change’ Pleads for Walking the Nuclear Abolition Talk

By Ronald Joshua Concluding a three-day International Youth Summit on The Youth Summit followed on the heels of the 25th Nuclear Abolition in Hiroshima, commemorating the UN Conference on Disarmament Issues in Hiroshima, HIROSHIMA (IDN) - A new ‘Generation of Change’ is 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings that razed organised by the Bangkok-based United Nations making its presence felt, pledging to walk the talk over Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the ground, the pledge Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the last 70 years in a clarion call for freeing the world of stated on August 30: “Nuclear weapons are a symbol of the Pacific (UNRCPD). 16,000 to 17,000 nuclear weapons that continue “to a bygone age; a symbol that poses eminent threat to The Summit brought together 30 key youth activists threaten every single person with the prospect of a our present reality and has no place in the future we on nuclear disarmament from more than 20 countries – cruel and inhumane death”. are creating.” including Austria, Canada, Costa Rica, Germany, India,

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 44 Italy, Japan, Kenya, Latvia, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Therefore, as the Generation of Change, they vow to: Youth participants said the summit had deepened Pakistan, Philippines, Romania, Thailand, Tunisia, UK ▪Continue to educate and empower ourselves in their sense of urgency. Erin Hunt of Mines Action and the USA – who are actively engaged in nuclear order to better spread this awareness amongst our Canada (MAC) commented: "This network of young disarmament and related fields at the local, regional peers; people who now have this shared experience of and international levels. ▪Recognize that diversity in this work is important knowing what these weapons can do – I think is very, They also met with survivors of the atomic bombing and work to educate ourselves on how gender impacts very important." (hibakusha) and discussed future strategies aimed at disarmament Messages of support were received from peace ridding the world of nuclear weapons. ▪Take action, raise our voices and pursue nuclear activists including NAPF President David The pledge concludes: "We, the Generation of abolition in our communities and our countries; Krieger,International Institute on Peace Education Change, invite you to join us as we raise our collective ▪Share our knowledge about the humanitarian Founder Betty Reardon, SGI President Daisaku Ikeda voice to call for action; we refuse to stand by while impact of nuclear weapons and the experiences of and International Physicians for the Prevention of nuclear weapons continue to threaten our lives and hibakushas Nuclear War (IPPNW) Executive Director Michael Christ. future generations. Join us, take action and create ▪Encourage others to join the nuclear abolition The event was coordinated by representatives, among change!" movement and establish a strong unity among all others, of ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Participants argued that for 70 years speeches have nuclear abolition campaigners. Nuclear Weapons), MAC, NAPF, SGI and the Women's been made, statements issued and endorsed saying ▪Call upon every State to start negotiations on an International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). “never again”. And yet we are still held hostage by international treaty for the prohibition and elimination Cosponsors included the City of Hiroshima, the City of nuclear weapons. “We, youth around the world, are of nuclear weapons; Nagasaki, Hiroshima Peace Culture Foundation, PCU mustering the courage to stand up and fulfill these ▪Call on our elected representatives to adopt Nagasaki Council, Nagasaki Global Citizens' Assembly decades-old promises of abolition. We need to elimi- national legislation prohibiting and criminalizing the for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons, Mayors for nate this threat to our shared future and we urge you manufacture, investment in, testing, deployment, Peace, ICAN, IPPNW, the Basel Peace Office, Global to join us, the Generation of Change. It is time to take threat or use of nuclear weapons. Zero and Ban All Nukes generation (BANg). action.” The pledge was issued at a wider public forum joined Nobuyuki Asai, program coordinator for peace affairs The pledge goes on to state: “We, youth seek human by 250 participants at which summit cochairs Rick of the SGI, a socially-engaged Buddhist network with 12 security and sustainability, which are impossible to Wayman of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (NAPF) million members around the world that promotes achieve fully in the presence of nuclear weapons. Youth and Anna Ikeda of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) peace, culture and education that has been campaign- see the potential for a world without nuclear weapons presented the Youth Pledge to Ahmad Alhendawi, the ing for the abolition of nuclear weapons for over 50 – we see the potential for security not to be based on UN Secretary-General's Envoy on Youth. years, said: fear and more militarism, but on diplomacy, coopera- Alhendawi urged, "Let's be the generation that makes “Youth have intrinsic potential and capacity to change tion and trust. peace possible. This youth summit is sending a strong the status quo. The world stands at a critical juncture as “Abolishing nuclear weapons is our responsibility; it is message to the world, that the youth are for peace and we are marking the 70th anniversary of the atomic our right and we will no longer sit by while the opportu- for a nuclear-free-world, and the world must listen." bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It is the time for nity of nuclear abolition is squandered. We, youth in all The public forum also featured a film made by atomic young people around the world to unite together, to our diversity and in deep solidarity pledge to realize this bomb survivor Masaaki Tanabe, whose childhood home make a breakthrough toward a world without nuclear goal. We are the Generation of Change.” stood right next to the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiro- weapons.” “The continued existence of nuclear weapons,” says shima. He said, "Seeing my film, I hope that you really [IDN-InDepthNews – 31 August 2015] the pledge, “is unacceptable and action must be taken understood that these were real lives, people, genuine Photo: Witness in Hiroshima film to protect our shared future.” human beings. I want the world's leaders to know this Credit: International Press Syndicate truth."

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 45 Disarmament Conference Ends with Ambitious Goal – But How to Get There?

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 46 By Ramesh Jaura played an extremely important role for peace and nuclear weapon states to “work together in steadily stability in the international community; a role that advancing practical and concrete measures in order to HIROSHIMA (IPS) - A three-day landmark U.N. Confer- remains unchanged even today.” make real progress in nuclear disarmament.” ence on Disarmament Issues has ended here – one day The Hiroshima conference not only discussed diver- Kishida said that Japan will submit a “new draft ahead of the International Day Against Nuclear Tests – gent views on measures to preserve the effective resolution on the total elimination of nuclear weapons” stressing the need for ushering in a world free of implementation of the NPT, but also the role of the to the forthcoming meeting of the U.N. General nuclear weapons, but without a consensus on how to yet-to-be finalised Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Assembly. Such a resolution, he said, was “appropriate move towards that goal. (CTBT) in achieving the goal of elimination of nuclear to the 70th year since the atomic bombings and could The Aug. 26-28 conference, organised by the weapons, humanitarian consequences of the use of serve as guidelines for the international community for Bangkok-based United Nations Regional Centre for atomic weapons, and the significance of nuclear the next five years, on the basis of the Review Confer- Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific weapon free zones (NWFZs) for strengthening the ence”. (UNRCPD) in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign non-proliferation regime and nuclear disarmament. The next NPT Review Conference is expected to be Affairs (MOFA) of Japan and the city and Prefecture of Speakers attached particular attention to the increas- held in 2020. Hiroshima, was attended by more than 80 government ing role of local municipalities, civil society and nuclear Mayors for Peace has launched a 2020 Vision Cam- officials and experts, also from beyond the region. disarmament education, including testimonies from paign as the main vehicle for advancing their agenda – It was the twenty-fifth annual meeting of its kind held ‘hibakusha’ (survivors of atomic bombings mostly in a nuclear-weapon-free world by the year 2020. in Japan, which acquired a particular importance their 80s and above) in consolidating common under- The campaign was initiated on a provisional basis by against the backdrop of the 70th anniversary of the standing of the threat posed by nuclear weapons for the Executive Cities of Mayors for Peace at their atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the people from all countries around the world regardless meeting in Manchester, Britain, in October 2003. It was founding of the United Nations. whether or not their governments possess nuclear launched under the name ‘Emergency Campaign to Ban Summing up the deliberations, UNRCPD Director Yuriy weapons. Nuclear Weapons’ in November of that year at the 2nd Kryvonos said the discussions on “the opportunities and UNRCPD Director Kryvonos said the Hiroshima Citizens Assembly for the Elimination of Nuclear challenges in nuclear disarmament and non- conference had given “a good start for searching new Weapons held in Nagasaki, Japan. proliferation” had been “candid and dynamic”. fresh ideas on how we should move towards our goal – In August 2005, the World Conference endorsed The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weap- protecting our planet from a risk of using nuclear continuation of the campaign under the title of the ons (NPT) Review Conference from Apr. 27 to May 22 weapons.” ‘2020 Vision Campaign’. at the U.N. headquarters drew the focus in presenta- Hiroshima Prefecture Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki, the Foreign Minister Kishida expressed the views of the tions and panel discussions. city’s Mayor Karzumi Matsui – son of a ‘hibakusha’ inhabitants of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Ambassador Taous Feroukhi of Algeria, who presided father and president of the Mayors for Peace organisa- when he pointed out in a message to the UNRCPD over the NPT Review Conference, explained at length tion comprising 6,779 cities in 161 countries and conference: “… the reality of atomic bombings is far why the gathering had failed to agree on a universally regions – as well as his counterpart from Nagasaki, from being sufficiently understood worldwide.” acceptable draft final text, despite a far-reaching Tomihisa Taue, pleaded for strengthening a concerted He added: “In order to achieve a world free of nuclear consensus on a wide range of crucial issues: refusal of campaign for a nuclear free world. Taue is also the weapons, it is extremely important for political leaders, the United States, Britain and Canada to accept the president of the National Council of Japan’s Nuclear- young people and others worldwide to visit Hiroshima proposal for convening a conference by Mar. 1, 2016, Free Local Authorities. and Nagasaki and see for themselves the reality of for a Middle East Zone Free of Weapons of Mass Hiroshima and Nagasaki city leaders welcomed atomic bombings. Through this, I am convinced that we Destruction (WMDs). suggestions for a nuclear disarmament summit next will be able to share our aspirations for a world free of Addressing the issue, Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio year in Hiroshima, which they said would lend added nuclear weapons.” Kishida joined several government officials and experts thrust to awareness raising for a world free of nuclear (IPS | 28 August 2015) in expressing his regrets that the draft final document weapons. Photo: Cloud from an atmospheric nuclear test con- was not adopted due to the issue of WMDs. Though foreign ministry officials refused to identify ducted by the United States at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Kishida noted that the failure to establish a new Action themselves publicly with the proposal, Japan’s Foreign Islands, in November 1952. Plan at the Review Conference had led to a debate over Minister Fumio Kishida, who hails from Hiroshima, Credit: US Government the viability of the NPT. “However,” he added, “I would emphasised the need for nuclear-weapon and non- like to make one thing crystal clear. The NPT regime has

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 47 Call for Global Ban on Nuclear Weapons Testing

By Katsuhiro Asagiri and Ramesh Jaura GEM, which was set up by Lassina Zerbo, the Execu- Hiroshima and Nagasaki are the only two cities in the tive Secretary of the September 2013 Preparatory world which have suffered the devastating and brutal HIROSHIMA (IPS) - As the international community Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban atomic bombs that brought profound suffering to gears up to commemorate the 20th anniversary next Treaty Organization (CTBTO) at the United Nations innocent children, women and men, the tales of which year of the opening up of the Comprehensive Nuclear- headquarters in New York, met on Aug. 24-25 in continue to be told by the ‘hibakusha’ (survivors of Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) for signature, a group of Hiroshima, a modern city on Japan’s Honshu Island, atomic bombings). eminent persons (GEM) has launched a concerted which was largely destroyed by an atomic bomb during “There is nowhere other than this region where the campaign for entry into force of a global ban on nuclear the Second World War in 1945. urgency of achieving the Treaty’s entry into force is weapon testing.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 48 more evident, and there is no group better equipped effectiveness of its verification and enforcement community in support of preventing the proliferation with the experience and expertise to help further this mechanisms. In this area, there can be no question,” and further development of nuclear weapons with the cause than the Group of Eminent Persons,” CTBTO Zerbo said. aim of their total elimination. Executive Secretary Zerbo told participants. Also speaking at the opening session, Perry expressed Participants in the meeting discussed a wide range of The GEM is a high-level group comprising eminent his firm belief that ratification of the CTBT served U.S. relevant issues and debated practical measures that personalities and internationally recognised experts national interests, not only at the international level but could be undertaken to further advance the entry into whose aim is to promote the global ban on nuclear also at the strictly domestic level for national security force of the Treaty, especially in the run-up to the weapons testing, support and complement efforts to measures. He considered that the current geopolitical Article XIV Conference on Facilitating Entry into Force promote the entry into force of the Treaty, as well as climate constituted a risk for the prospects of entry into of the CTBT, which will take place at the end of Septem- reinvigorate international endeavours to achieve this force and reiterated the importance of maintaining the ber in New York, with Japan and Kazakhstan as co- goal. moratoria on nuclear testing. chairs. The two-day meeting was hosted by the government Participating GEM members included Nobuyasu Abe, One hundred and eighty-three countries have signed of Japan and the city of Hiroshima, where CTBTO former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament the Treaty, of which 163 have also ratified it, including Executive Secretary Zerbo participated in the com- Affairs, Japan; Des Browne, former Secretary of State three of the nuclear weapon states: France, Russia and memoration of the 70th anniversary of the atomic for Defence, United Kingdom; Jayantha Dhanapala, the United Kingdom. But 44 specific nuclear technology bombing early August. former U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament holder countries must sign and ratify before the CTBT On the eve of the meeting, Zerbo joined former Affairs; Sérgio Duarte, former U.N. High Representative can enter into force. Of these, eight are still missing: United States Secretary of Defence and GEM Member for Disarmament Affairs, Brazil; Michel Duclos, Senior China, Egypt, India, Iran, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan William Perry and Hiroshima Governor Hidehiko Yuzaki Counsellor to the Policy Planning Department at the and the United States. India, North Korea and Pakistan as a panellist in a public lecture on nuclear disarma- French Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Wolfgang Hoffmann, have yet to sign the CTBT. ment which was attended by around 100 persons, former Executive Secretary of the CTBTO, Germany; The GEM adopted the Hiroshima Declaration, which including many students. Ho-Jin Lee, Ambassador, Republic of Korea; and William reaffirmed the group’s commitment to achieving the In an opening statement, Zerbo urged global leaders Perry, former Secretary of Defence, United States. global elimination of nuclear weapons and, in particu- to use the momentum created by the recently reached István Mikola, Minister of State, Hungary; Yusron Ihza lar, to the entry into force of the CTBT as “one of the agreement between the E3+3 (China, France, Germany, Mahendra, Ambassador of Indonesia to Japan; Mitsuru most essential practical measures for nuclear disarma- the Russian Federation, United Kingdom and the United Kitano, Permanent Representative, Ambassador of ment and non-proliferation”, and, among others, called States) and Iran to inject a much needed dose of hope Japan to the International Organisations in Vienna; and for “a multilateral approach to engage the leadership of and positivity in the current discussions on nuclear Yerzhan N. Ashikbayev, Deputy Minister of Foreign the remaining . . . eight States with the aim of facilitat- non-proliferation and disarmament. Affairs, Republic of Kazakhstan, participated as ex- ing their respective ratification processes.” “What the Iran deal teaches us is that multilateralism officio members. The GEM called on “political leaders, governments, in arms control and international security is not only The GEM took stock of the Plan of Action agreed in its civil society and the international scientific community possible, but the most effective way of addressing the meetings in New York (Sep. 2013), Stockholm (Apr. to raise awareness of the essential role of the CTBT in complex and multi-layered challenges of the 21st 2014) and Seoul (Jun. 2015). The Group considered the nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation and in the century. [It] also teaches us that the measure of worth current international climate and determined that, with prevention of the catastrophic consequences of the use in any security agreement or arms control treaty is in the upcoming 20th anniversary of the opening for of nuclear weapons for humankind.” the credibility of its verification provisions. As with the signature of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban (IPS | 27 August 2015) Iran deal, the utility of the CTBT must be judged on the Treaty, there was an urgency to unite the international Photo: Group of CTBTO Eminent Persons in Hiroshima Credit: CTBTO

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 49 Hiroshima and Nagasaki Mayors Plead for a Nuclear Weapons Free World

By Ramesh Jaura ‘I Was There’ [that] “the use of this barbarous weapon As long as nuclear weapons exist, he warned, anyone at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assis- could become a hibakusha at any time. If that happens, BERLIN/TOKYO (IPS) - Seventy years after the brutal and tance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were the damage would reach indiscriminately beyond militarily unwarranted atomic bombings of the Japa- already defeated and ready to surrender …” national borders. “People of the world, please listen nese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Aug. 6 and 9, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the U.S. president from 1953 carefully to the words of the hibakusha and, profoundly a nuclear weapons free world is far from within reach. until 1961, shared this view. He was a five-star general accepting the spirit of Hiroshima, contemplate the Commemorating the two events, the mayors of in the United States Army during World War II and nuclear problem as your own,” he exhorted. Hiroshima and Nagasaki made impassioned pleas for served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in As president of Mayors for Peace, comprising mayors heeding the experiences of the survivors of the atomic Europe. from more than 6,700 member cities, Kazumi Matsui bombings and the growing worldwide awareness of the Eisenhower stated in his memoirs that when notified vowed: “Hiroshima will act with determination, doing compelling need for complete abolition of such weap- by Secretary of War Henry Stimson of the decision to everything in our power to accelerate the international ons. use atomic weapons, he “voiced to him my grave trend toward negotiations for a nuclear weapons The atomic bombings in 1945 destroyed the two misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was convention and abolition of nuclear weapons by 2020.” cities, and more than 200,000 people died of nuclear already defeated and that dropping the bomb was This, he said, was the first step toward nuclear radiation, shockwaves from the blasts and thermal completely unnecessary.” weapons abolition. The next step would be to create, radiation. Over 400,000 have died since the end of the Even the famous “hawk” Maj. Gen. Curtis LeMay, head through the trust thus won, broadly versatile security war, from the after-effects of the bombs. of the Twenty-First Bomber Command, went public the systems that do not depend on military might. As of Mar. 31, 2015, the Japanese government had month after the bombing, telling the press that “the “Working with patience and perseverance to achieve recognised 183,519 as ‘hibakusha’ (explosion-affected atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war those systems will be vital, and will require that we people), most of them living in Japan. Japan’s Atomic at all,” wrote Alperovitz. promote throughout the world the path to true peace Bomb Survivors Relief Law defines hibakusha as people “The peoples of this world must unite or they will revealed by the pacifism of the Japanese Constitution,” who were: within a few kilometres of the hypocentres perish,” warned Robert Oppenheimer, widely consid- he added. of the bombs; within 2 km of the hypocentres within ered the father of the bomb, as he called on politicians “We call on the Japanese government, in its role as two weeks of the bombings; exposed to radiation from to place the terrifying power of the atom under strict bridge between the nuclear- and non-nuclear-weapon fallout; or not yet born but carried by pregnant women international control. states, to guide all states toward these discussions, and in any of these categories. Oppenheimer’s call has yet to be followed. we offer Hiroshima as the venue for dialogue and During the commemorative events in Hiroshima and In his fervent address on Aug. 6, Kazumi Matsui, outreach,” the mayor of Hiroshima said. Nagasaki, reports in several newspapers confirmed that mayor of the City of Hiroshima, said: “Our world still In the Nagasaki Peace Declaration issued on Aug. 9, those bombings were militarily unwarranted. bristles with more than 15,000 nuclear weapons, and Nagasaki mayor Tomihisa Taue asked the Japanese Gar Alperovitz, formerly Lionel R. Bauman Professor of policy-makers in the nuclear-armed states remain government and Parliament to “fix your sights on the Political Economy at the University of Maryland, wrote trapped in provincial thinking, repeating by word and future, and please consider a conversion from a in The Nation that that “the war was won before deed their nuclear intimidation.” ‘nuclear umbrella’ to a ‘non-nuclear umbrella’.” Hiroshima – and the generals who dropped the bomb He added: “We now know about the many incidents Japan does not possess any atomic weapons and is knew it.” and accidents that have taken us to the brink of nuclear protected, like South Korea and Germany, as well as He quoted Adm. William Leahy, President Harry S. war or nuclear explosions. Today, we worry as well most of the NATO member states, by the U.S. nuclear Truman’s Chief of Staff, who wrote in his 1950 memoir about nuclear terrorism.” umbrella.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 50 He appealed to the Japanese government to explore allow the NPT Review Conference “to have been a No U.S. president has ever attended the any event to national security measures, which do not rely on waste”. Instead, they should continue their efforts to commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. nuclear deterrence. “The establishment of a ‘Northeast debate a legal framework, such as a ‘Nuclear Weapons Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and Interna- Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NEA-NWFZ),’ as Convention (NWC),’ at every opportunity, including at tional Security Rose Gottemoeller was the highest- advocated by researchers in America, Japan, Korea, the General Assembly of the United Nations. ranking U.S. official at the Aug. 6 ceremony. She was China, and many other countries, would make this Many countries at the Review Conference were in reported as saying that nuclear weapons should never possible,” he said. agreement that it was important to visit the atomic- be used again. Referring to the Japanese Parliament “currently bombed cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. (IPS | 10 August 2015) deliberating a bill, which will determine how our Against this backdrop, the Nagasaki mayor appealed Photo: The mayor of Nagasaki, Tomihisa Taue, presents country guarantees its security”, he said: “There is to “President [Barack] Obama, heads of state, including the Nagasaki Peace Declaration, saying that “rather widespread unease and concern that the oath which the heads of the nuclear weapon states, and all the than envisioning a nuclear-free world as a faraway was engraved onto our hearts 70 years ago and the people of the world … (to) please come to Nagasaki and dream, we must quickly decide to solve this issue by peaceful ideology of the Constitution of Japan are now Hiroshima, and see for yourself exactly what happened working towards the abolition of these weapons, wavering. I urge the Government and the Diet to listen under those mushroom clouds 70 years ago.” fulfilling the promise made to global society”. to these voices of unease and concern, concentrate Credit: YouTube their wisdom, and conduct careful and sincere delibera- tions.” The Nagasaki Peace Declaration noted that the peaceful ideology of the Constitution of Japan was born from painful and harsh experiences, and from reflection on the war. “Since the war, our country has walked the path of a peaceful nation. For the sake of Nagasaki, and for the sake of all of Japan, we must never change the peaceful principle that we renounce war,” the declara- tion said. The Nagasaki mayor regretted that the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non- Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) held at the United Nations earlier this year had struggled with reaching agreement on a Final Document. However, said Taue, the efforts of those countries which were attempting to ban nuclear weapons had made possible a draft Final Document “which incorpo- rated steps towards nuclear disarmament.” He urged the heads of NPT member states not to

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 51 Learning from Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

By Katsuhiro Asagiri* Battle of Okinawa, nor the many people of Asia who Describing the state of the hibakusha, Kazumi Matsui, TOKYO (IDN) - In a message to the Peace Memorial suffered because of this tragic war. Now, 70 years on, it Mayor of the City of Hiroshima, said: “Those who Ceremony, to mark the 70th anniversary of the bomb- is vital that we continue to pass on those memories.” managed to survive, their lives grotesquely distorted, ing of Hiroshima on August 6, UN Secretary-General He asked those who experienced the atomic bomb were left to suffer serious physical and emotional Ban Ki-moon echoed the ardent wish of the survivors of and the war in Japan and across the globe to speak of aftereffects compounded by discrimination and nuclear assault, when he called for "urgent action to their experiences, and not allow those memories to prejudice. Children stole or fought routinely to survive. eliminate nuclear weapons once and for all". fade. A young boy rendered an A-bomb orphan still lives Evoking the first resolution by the UN General Assem- Addressing the young generation, he said: “I ask that alone; a wife was divorced when her exposure was bly, which reflected the international community’s you do not push wartime experiences aside saying that discovered. The suffering continues.” concern about the use of atomic weapons, he urged they are stories of the past. Understand that the Trapped in provincial thinking states to honour the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki wartime generation tell you their stories because what Against this backdrop, the Hiroshima and Nagasaki by realising the "vision of a nuclear-weapons-free they speak of could, in the future, happen to you as Mayors appealed for doing away with all nuclear world". well. Therefore, please inherit their wish for peace.” weapons that are tools of mass destruction. He recalled that towards the end of World War II, on He added: “Listen to stories of the war, sign petitions The Hiroshima Mayor Matsui pointed out that while August 6 and 9, 1945, the United States dropped for nuclear abolition, and visit atomic bomb exhibitions. the world was bristling with more than 15,000 nuclear atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two Together, these individual actions can create a much weapons, policymakers in the nuclear-armed states cities were destroyed and more than 200,000 people larger power.” remained trapped in “provincial thinking, repeating by died of nuclear radiation, shockwaves from the blasts The Nagasaki Declaration on August 9 also highlighted word and deed their nuclear intimidation”. and thermal radiation. Over 400,000 have died since the significant role the youth play: “In Nagasaki, the This attitude persisted despite the fact that the the end of the war, from the after-effects of the bombs. younger generation, which includes second and third international community was fully aware of “the many The Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki shared Ban’s generation hibakusha, are inheriting the wish for peace incidents and accidents that have taken us to the brink views. They are keen that the younger generation and are taking action. Our individual strengths are the of nuclear war or nuclear explosions”. Meanwhile keeps alive the memory of what transpired 70 years greatest power in realizing a world without war and nuclear terrorism was also a source of great concern. ago. without nuclear weapons. The power of civil society is As long as nuclear weapons exist, he warned, anyone They also want the nuclear power states to abandon the power to move governments, and to move the could become a hibakusha at any time. If that happens, all nuclear weapons and Japan – as the only country to world.” the damage would reach indiscriminately beyond have suffered the havoc caused by atomic bombs – to Hibakusha is the Japanese word for nuclear national borders. “People of the world, please listen act as a bridge between nuclear and non-nuclear “explosion-affected people”, who survived the atomic carefully to the words of the hibakusha and, profoundly states. bombings. accepting the spirit of Hiroshima, contemplate the Nagasaki Mayor Tomihisa Taue pointed out that most By March 2015, the Japanese government had nuclear problem as your own,” he exhorted. of Japan’s population was made up of the post-war recognised 183,519 as hibakusha, most living in Japan. Matsui is president of the Mayors for Peace, a global generation. The memories of war were fast fading from Japan’s Atomic Bomb Survivors Relief Law defines grouping comprising more than 6,700 member cities. the society. hibakusha as people who were: within a few kilometers He assured: “Hiroshima will act with determination, In view of this, he said: “We must not forget the of the hypocenters of the bombs; within 2 km of the doing everything in our power to accelerate the atomic bomb experiences of those in Nagasaki and hypocenters within two weeks of the bombings; international trend toward negotiations for a nuclear Hiroshima. Neither should we forget the air raids, exposed to radiation from fallout; or not yet born but weapons convention and abolition of nuclear weapons which destroyed Tokyo and many other cities, the carried by pregnant women in any of these categories. by 2020.”

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 52 This, he said, was the first step toward the abolition of to these voices of unease and concern, concentrate event to commemorate the atomic bombings of nuclear weapons. The next step would be to create their wisdom, and conduct careful and sincere delibera- Hiroshima. Undersecretary of State for Arms Control broadly versatile security systems that do not depend tions.” and International Security Rose Gottemoeller was the on military might but are based on mutual trust. The peaceful ideology of the Constitution of Japan, the highest-ranking U.S. official at August 6 ceremony. She “Working with patience and perseverance to achieve Nagasaki Peace Declaration said, was born from painful was reported saying that nuclear weapons should never those systems will be vital, and will require that we and harsh experiences, and from reflection upon the be used again. promote throughout the world the path to true peace war. “Since the war, our country has walked the path of Widespread view in the U.S. is that the atomic bomb- pursued by the pacifism of the Japanese Constitution,” a peaceful nation. For the sake of Nagasaki, and for the ings were necessary to bring Japan down to its knees he added. sake of all of Japan, we must never change the peaceful and end the Second World War. But this view is being The Hiroshima Mayor called upon the Japanese principle that we renounce war,” the declaration increasingly challenged, evoking the criticism, among government, in its role “as bridge between the nuclear- added. others, of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower, the U.S. President and non-nuclear-weapon states, to guide all states The Nagasaki Mayor regretted that in the ‘Review from 1953 until 1961, and a five-star general in the toward these discussions”. Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non- United States Army during World War II, who served as Hiroshima has offered itself as the venue for dialogue Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT)’ had ended Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe, and outreach. without the adoption of a Final Document. However, Eisenhower stated in his memoirs that when notified by Fix sights on the future the efforts of those countries, which were attempting Secretary of War Henry Stimson of the decision to use The Nagasaki Mayor Taue exhorted the Japanese to ban nuclear weapons, made possible a draft Final atomic weapons, he “voiced to him my grave misgiv- Government and Parliament to fix their sights on the Document which incorporated steps towards nuclear ings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was future, and consider a conversion from a ‘nuclear disarmament,” he noted. already defeated and that dropping the bomb was umbrella’ to a ‘non-nuclear umbrella’. He urged the heads of the NPT member states not to completely unnecessary”. Like South Korea and Germany, and most of the NATO allow the NPT Review Conference “to have been a [IDN-InDepthNews – 9 August 2015] member states, Japan does not possess any atomic waste”. Instead, they should avail of every opportunity weapons and is protected by the U.S. nuclear umbrella. to continue their efforts to debate a legal framework, Taue appealed to the Japanese Government to such as a ‘Nuclear Weapons Convention (NWC),’ at explore national security measures, which do not rely every opportunity, also in the General Assembly of the on nuclear deterrence. “The establishment of a ‘North- United Nations. east Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone (NEA-NWFZ),’ as Many countries at the Review Conference were in advocated by researchers in America, Japan, Korea, agreement that it is important to visit the atomic- China, and many other countries, would make this bombed cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Against this possible,” he said. backdrop, the Nagasaki Mayor appealed to: “President Referring to the Japanese Parliament “currently Obama, heads of state, including the heads of the deliberating a bill, which will determine how our nuclear weapon states, and all the people of the country guarantees its security”, he said: “There is world . . . (to) please come to Nagasaki and Hiroshima, widespread unease and concern that the oath which and see for yourself exactly what happened under was engraved onto our hearts 70 years ago and the those mushroom clouds 70 years ago.” peaceful ideology of the Constitution of Japan are now No U.S. President has since 1945 ever attended any wavering. I urge the Government and the Diet to listen

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 53 No More Hiroshimas, No More Nagasakis, Vows U.N. Chief

By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - Speaking at a commemoration Yet despite these horrendous cataclysms in Japan, In a press advisory, the Western States Legal Founda- of the 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of there are still 16,000 nuclear weapons on the planet, all tion (WSLF), a longstanding advocate for nuclear Japan, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a vociferous but 1,000 of them held by the U.S. and Russia, she disarmament, said 70 years after the U.S. dropped advocate of nuclear disarmament, echoed the rallying pointed out. atomic bombs on the people of Hiroshima and Naga- cry worldwide: “No more Hiroshimas, No more Nagasa- “Our legal structures to control and eliminate the saki, preparations for nuclear war are ongoing at the kis.” bomb are in tatters, as the five recognized nuclear Livermore Lab. Providing grim figures, he said more than 200,000 weapons states in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)- Over 85 percent of the Fiscal Year 2016 budget people died of nuclear radiation, shock waves from the the U.S., UK, Russia, France, China–cling to their nuclear request for the Lab is dedicated to Nuclear Weapons blasts, and thermal radiation from the bombing of deterrents, asserting they are needed for their ‘secu- Activities. Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, and of Nagasaki three days rity’ despite the promises they made in 1970, 45 long Scientists at Livermore are developing a modified later. years ago, to make good faith efforts to eliminate their nuclear warhead for a new long-range stand-off Additionally, over 400,000 more people have died – nuclear arms,” she added. weapon to replace the air-launched cruise missile. and are continuing to die – since the end of the Second This “security” in the form of nuclear “deterrence” is Nearly 16,000 nuclear weapons – 94 percent of them World War from the impacts of the attacks. extended by the United States to many more countries held by the U.S. and Russia – continue to pose an “As you keep the memory of the bombing alive, so in the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) intolerable threat to humanity, she said, pointing out too, must the international community persist until we nuclear alliances, as well as to the Pacific states of that nuclear weapons have again taken center stage on have ensured that nuclear weapons are eliminated,” he Japan, Australia, and South Korea. the borderlands of Europe, one of several potential said Thursday. Non-NPT states, India, Pakistan and Israel, as well as nuclear flashpoints. Ban said the United Nations, since its establishment 70 North Korea which left the NPT, taking advantage of its Whether a nuclear exchange is initiated by accident, years ago, has been seeking to eliminate weapons of Faustian bargain for “peaceful” nuclear power, to make miscalculation or madness, the radiation and soot will mass destruction (WMDs). nuclear weapons similarly claim their reliance on know no boundaries. The U.N. General Assembly’s first resolution, adopted nuclear “deterrence” for their security, Slater said. The statement also said the U.S. plans to spend a in January 1946, set the goal of eliminating all WMDs. She said the rest of the world is appalled, not only at trillion dollars over the next 30 years “modernising” its “Until I realise this goal, I will continue to use every the lack of progress to fulfill promises for nuclear nuclear bombs, warheads, delivery systems and opportunity to raise global awareness about the disarmament, but the constant modernization and infrastructure to sustain them for decades to come. dangers of nuclear weapons and demand an urgent “improvement” of nuclear arsenals with the U.S. The human cost is immeasurable—to our health, international response,” he vowed. announcing a plan to spend one trillion dollars over the environment, ethics, and democracy, to our prospects Alice Slater, New York director of the Nuclear Age next 30 years for two new bomb factories, delivery for global peace, and to our confidence in human Peace Foundation and who serves on the Coordinating systems and warheads, having just tested a dummy survival. Committee of Abolition 2000, told IPS: “On this fateful nuclear bunker-buster warhead last month in Nevada, “We gather at Livermore Lab to demand that nuclear day, 70 years ago, the first of the only two atomic its B-61-12 nuclear gravity bomb. weapons spending be slashed and redirected to meet bombs ever used was dropped on the city of Hiroshima, In Northern California, peace advocates marked the human needs. On this 70th anniversary date, we with a second catastrophic detonation wreaked on 70th anniversary at the Livermore Lab, where the U.S. welcome the Iran deal and call on the U.S. government Nagasaki on Aug. 9, killing over 220,000 people by the is presently spending billions of dollars to create new to now lead a process, with a timetable, to achieve the end of 1945, with many tens of thousands of more and modified nuclear weapons. universal elimination of nuclear weapons.” dying from radiation poisoning and its lethal after The Lawrence Livermore Lab is one of the two national Slater told IPS that at the last NPT Review Conference effects over the years.” laboratories that have designed every warhead in the in May, which broke up when the U.S., UK and Canada U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. refused to agree to an Egyptian proposal for a confer

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 54 ence on a Middle East Weapons of Mass Destruction Free Zone — made to fulfill a 1995 promise as part of the commitments from the nuclear weapons states for an indefinite extension of the 25 year old NPT — the non- nuclear weapons states took a bold step. South Africa expressed its outrage at the unacceptable nuclear apartheid apparent in the current “security” system of nuclear haves and have nots—a system holding the whole world hostage to the security doctrine of the few. In the past two years, after three major conferences with governments and civil society in Norway, Mexico and Austria to examine the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of nuclear war, over 100 nations signed up at the end of the NPT to the Austrian government’s Humanitarian Pledge to identify and pursue effective measures to fill the legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. There are now 113 countries willing to move forward to negotiate a prohibition and ban on nuclear weapons to stigmatise and delegitimise these weapons of horror, just at the world has done for chemical and biological weapons. See www.icanw.org Slater said it is hoped that countries harbouring under their nuclear umbrellas will also be pressured by civil society to give up their alliance with the nuclear devil and join the Humanitarian Pledge. “This August, as we remember and commemorate around the world the horrendous events in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it’s long past time to ban the bomb! Let the talks begin.” (IPS | 6 August 2015) Photo: A Hibakusha, one of the survivors of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, speaks at a special event commemorating Disarmament Week in October 2011. Credit: UN Photo/Paulo Filgueiras

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 55 Pacific Island Countries Want a World Without Nuclear Weapons

By Neena Bhandari SYDNEY (IDN) - As political conflicts magnify in the nuclear weapons testing by the U.S, the U.K and France. humane and responsible course of action to take. Middle East and North Africa with the spectre of brutal The Republic of Marshall Islands’ (RMI) Minister for Nuclear weapons states should be regarded, collec- violence from terrorist organisations like ISIS, and the Foreign Affairs, Tony de Brum, was nine years old in tively, as lawless and flouting international humanitar- Ukraine crisis reignites the Cold War between the March 1954, when while fishing with his grandfather ian standards”. United States, its NATO [North Atlantic Treaty Organisa- near the Likiep atoll, he had seen “the ocean, the fish, Griffen has been a representative of FemLINKPacific, a tion] allies and Russia; it is imperative that nuclear- and the sky turn red following a sudden intense flash feminist Pacific women's media organisation and armed and non-nuclear states together work for total that lit the pre-dawn sky and caused a terrifying shock partner member of International Campaign to Abolish elimination of nuclear weapons. The risk of use of wave”. They were 200 miles from ground zero and he Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and the Global Partnership for nuclear weapons, by deliberation or accident, leading can never erase the memory of that fateful day. the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). She says, to total annihilation looms large more than ever before. RMI has been a strong advocate of nuclear disarma- “Pacific Island states, with an unusually high experien- Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Island countries ment, highlighting the catastrophic humanitarian tial qualification for speaking up for nuclear disarma- have been at the forefront of global efforts to imple- consequences of use of nuclear weapons. Between ment, are a significant number in the United Nations ment the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which 1946 and 1958, the Marshall Islands sustained signifi- and should use their statehood collectively and effec- represents the only binding multilateral commitment to cant damage and radiological contamination from 67 tively on this global issue of nuclear disarmament”. the goal of complete disarmament by the nuclear- U.S. atmospheric nuclear weapons tests. In a landmark NPT was indefinitely extended in 1995. Its Article VIII weapon states. But the Ninth Review Conference of the case, it has used its history of people suffering displace- provides that the Treaty be reviewed every five years. NPT, from April 27 to May 22, which has three main ment, death, and continued health impacts to take the The five-yearly review process was to ensure that pillars – non-proliferation, disarmament and peaceful nuclear weapons states to the International Court of nuclear- armed states will pursue disarmament as a uses of nuclear energy – overwhelmingly reflected the Justice in The Hague. matter of policy, but in the past five years the nuclear- views and interests of the nuclear-armed states and De Brum told IDN, “It is time for the non-nuclear armed states have pursued costly programmes to some of their nuclear-dependent allies. states to work together to achieve a new treaty to modernise their arsenals. So while the 2015 Review Conference was a step prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons. The evidence The key findings in the 2015 Yearbook of the Stock- backward from the 2010 Review Conference in has been convincing that the nuclear-armed countries, holm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), nuclear-armed states’ commitment to disarmament, it despite their legal obligations, are not prepared at this which assesses the current state of armaments, was also a move forward as non-nuclear states steered point to lead the way. Instead, they believe that they disarmament and international security, show that “all ahead for disarmament with the signing of the Humani- have special rights, which they do not, to base their the nuclear weapon-possessing states are working to tarian Pledge put forward by Austria. As of July 14, 113 own security on nuclear possession, nuclear threats develop new nuclear weapon systems and/or upgrade states had signed the Pledge, which commits signato- and potentially nuclear use. In doing so, these countries their existing ones”. At the start of 2015, nine states – ries to work for a new legally binding instrument for the are undermining their own security as well as the the U.S, Russia, the U.K, France, China, India, Pakistan, prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons for common security of all states and all people”. Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea their unacceptable humanitarian consequences. Someone, who participated in the early Pacific-wide (DPRK or North Korea) – possessed approximately The Humanitarian Pledge has been signed by 10 protest movement against nuclear weapons testing and 15,850 nuclear weapons, of which 4300 were deployed Pacific Island states - Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall militarisation of the Pacific region, Fiji-based Vanessa with operational forces. Islands, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tuvalu, Griffen says, “In the Pacific, we have collectively Australia doesn’t possess nuclear weapons, but it and Vanuatu with the exception of Tonga and the experienced the known and unknown consequences of subscribes to the doctrine of extended nuclear deter- Federated States of Micronesia. From 1956 to 1996, nuclear weapons use, the push by non-nuclear states rence under the U.S alliance, which is seen as key to the Pacific island countries were unwilling victims of for a ban on nuclear weapons is the only sensible, Australia’s national security. Australia has not signed

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 56 the Humanitarian Pledge. As a spokesperson for the cooperation, even with “enemies”, is possible”, Over four decades after the NPT came into force, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Member of the Board of International Physicians for roughly1800 nuclear weapons are kept in a state of (DFAT) told IDN, “We need to create an environment the Prevention of Nuclear War, Dr Sue Wareham told high operational alert. As Professor Ramesh Thakur, where all countries, including the nuclear-armed states IDN, adding that “Even Israel must realise that its own Director, Centre for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and and those who rely on their nuclear umbrellas, believe nuclear arsenal is a liability, as it is a provocation for Disarmament of Australian National University’s themselves to be more secure without nuclear weap- other nations in the region to consider acquiring their Crawford School of Public Policy says, “Perhaps, the ons”. own”. NPT has passed its use by date and the world needs to Peace, justice and environmental activists, faith-based Over the last five years, humanitarian consequences transition to a post-NPT era without endangering the and civil society organisations, scientific and medical of nuclear weapons have been the most active area of existing global nuclear order that is firmly anchored in experts, and United Nations agencies have been calling progress in disarmament diplomacy. New Zealand, as the NPT. While non-proliferation obligations are for negotiations to begin immediately on the elimina- chair of the New Agenda Coalition (NAC), was princi- binding, verifiable and enforceable under the NPT, tion of nuclear weapons under strict and effective pally responsible for drafting Working Paper 9, which disarmament obligations are not. Three conferences international control. lays out the possible pathways forward for a legal have been held to date on the humanitarian impacts of Deeply immoral mechanism to implement the nuclear disarmament nuclear weapons, which might point the way to a ICAN’s Australia Director Tim Wright, who attended obligations in NPT Article VI. post-NPT nuclear-weapon-free order now supported by the Ninth Review Conference in New York says, Lyndon Burford, a PhD student in International 159 countries”. “Throughout the review conference, Australia dragged Relations at the University of Auckland, New Zealand Prof. Thakur suggests three options: “First, ban any its feet on disarmament, maintaining that the use of says, “New Zealand insists that such discussion is use of nuclear weapons as it violates the very core of nuclear weapons is legitimate and necessary under essential, and urgently needed, but that before it has international humanitarian law; secondly, the over- certain circumstances. This stance is, in my view, deeply taken place, it would be premature to select one legal whelming majority of non-nuclear countries could act immoral. But I remain hopeful that, sooner or later, the framework over any other. NGOs, however, question on their own to ban the possession as well as use of Australian government will join the international why New Zealand has not endorsed the Humanitarian nuclear weapons; and thirdly, the best but most mainstream in rejecting nuclear weapons outright. That Pledge. The failure to endorse the pledge is particularly challenging option would be the negotiation of a is what the Australian people expect and demand”. puzzling given that the rest of the New Agenda Coali- nuclear weapons convention (NWC) on the lines of The landmark nuclear deal signed by the U.S, Russia, tion has endorsed it, and that New Zealand has played conventions banning biological and chemical weapons.” the U.K, France, China and Germany with Iran raises such a leading role in the humanitarian consequences [IDN-InDepthNews – 22 July 2015] new hopes for disarmament. Realising where self- initiative”. interest lies can change anything in geo-politics. Iran One of the major obstacles in the total prohibition and went from being an archenemy, almost militarily elimination of nuclear weapons has been the nuclear- invaded by the U.S, to a country that the U.S and others armed states’ two set of rules: one for themselves and had to deal with more respectfully over the matter of the other for everyone else. Wareham says, “But a Iraq and ISIS. less-recognised impediment is the role played by U.S In October last year, the Australian Defence Minister allies such as Australia, who quietly urge their great ally David Johnstone even said that Australian commandos to maintain its nuclear arsenal while trying to keep up could work alongside Iranian forces because of what he the facade of being at the forefront of disarmament. If said was a common interest in stopping ISIS. a close U.S ally broke ranks and refused “protection” by Nuclear weapons are a common threat to all of us and nuclear weapons, the impact could be enormous”.

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 57 Security Council Defies U.S. Lawmakers by Voting on Iran Nuke Deal

By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - When all 15 members of the “It’s presumptuous of some people to suspect that “Washington still won’t officially acknowledge that Security Council raised their collective hands to unani- France, Russia, China, Germany and Britain ought to do Israel now possesses nuclear weapons, and U.S. leaders mously vote in favour of the nuclear agreement with what the (U.S.) Congress tells them to do,” he said have turned aside from any and all proposals to seek a Iran, they were also defying a cabal of right-wing during a TV interview. nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East,” said conservative U.S. politicians who wanted the United “They have the right to have a vote,” he said, “but we Solomon. Nations to defer its vote until the U.S. Congress makes prevailed on them to delay the implementation of that On July 20, the 28-member European Union (EU) also its own decision on the pact. vote out of respect for our Congress, so we wouldn’t be approved the Iran nuclear deal paving the way for the By U.N. standards, in a relatively early morning nine jamming them,” Kerry added. lifting of Europe’s economic sanctions against Tehran. a.m. vote on July 20, the Security Council gave its According to the New York Times, Senator Bob Corker, “It is a balanced deal that means Iran won’t get an blessings to the international agreement crafted by its Republican of Tennessee, chairman of the Senate atomic bomb,” said French Foreign Minister Laurent five permanent members – the United States, Britain, Committee on Foreign Relations, and Senator Benjamin Fabius. “It is a major political deal.” France, China and Russia, plus Germany (P5+1) – which Cardin of Maryland, a ranking Democrat on the panel, The permanent representative of Britain to the United was finalised in Vienna on July 14 after months of sent a joint letter to President Barack Obama on July 16 Nations, Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, expressed protracted negotiations. asking him to postpone the Security Council vote until similar sentiments when he said “the world is now a Stephen Zunes, professor of politics and Coordinator the U.S. Congress has taken its own decision. safer place in the knowledge that Iran cannot now build of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Norman Solomon, executive director of the a nuclear bomb.” Francisco, told IPS the United States is the only one of Washington-based Institute for Public Accuracy, told Solomon told IPS the United States is among the the seven signatory countries (P5+1 and Iran) where IPS “it’s often a difficult concept to get across to many leading countries that have promulgated commercial there is serious opposition to the agreement, which a members of Congress, but the U.S. government can’t nuclear power in dozens of nations, steadfastly denying broad cross-section of strategic analysts worldwide run the world — and sometimes official Washington the reality that nuclear energy for electricity generation recognise as the best realistically possible. can’t even run the U.N. Security Council.” is a major pathway for the development of nuclear “Some people just can’t accept the fact that we are in This comes as a shock, or at least an affront, to weapons. an increasingly pluralistic and complex world in which Republicans and quite a few Democrats on Capitol Hill “We have seen no acknowledgement of this fact in the United States simply cannot assert its will whenever who may never use the word hegemony but fervently Washington’s high places, let alone steps to move the and wherever it feels like,” he added. believe that the U.S. is a light onto all nations and world away from such dangerous nuclear-power Successful negotiations require compromises from should not hide that light under such a dubious bushel extravaganzas,” he said. both sides rather than simply capitulation by one side, as international law, he pointed out. The Iran nuclear agreement now on the table is one of said Zunes, who has written extensively on the politics “In this case, it’s hard to know whether to laugh or the few big diplomatic achievements that the Obama of the Security Council. scream at the dangerous U.S. congressional arrogance administration can legitimately claim some credit for, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, one of the prime that is seeking to upend the Iran deal,” said Solomon, he argued. negotiators of the agreement, responded to demands who is also founder and coordinator of But many of the most chauvinistic forces in Washing- by some U.S. Congressmen that the United States RootsAction.org, an online action group with some ton, he noted, are now doing their best to undermine should take political and diplomatic precedence over 600,000 active supporters. it. the United Nations – even on an agreement that was Historically, U.S. government policies have been “In the context of the United Nations, as well as in international, not bilateral. responsible for a great deal of nuclear proliferation in political arenas of the United States, this dynamic the world, he said. should be fully recognised for what it is — a brazen

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 58 related commitments under the JCPOA.” The United Nations, he assured, stands ready to provide whatever assistance is required in giving effect to the resolution. Zunes told IPS as nuclear treaties between the United States and the Soviets demonstrated, you can be geopolitical rivals and strongly oppose the other’s system of government and still recognise there is such a thing as a win/win solution on arms control. Most agreements regarding nuclear weapons have required reciprocity, but none of Iran’s nuclear-armed neighbours — Israel, Pakistan, or India — will be required to eliminate or reduce their weapons or become open to inspections despite the fact that they continue to be in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding their nuclear programmes, he added. And none of the other nuclear powers, including five of the six nations that led the negotiations, will be required to reduce their arsenals either. “Any notion that Iran could somehow be gaining an unfair advantage through this agreement is utterly absurd,” declared Zunes. (IPS | 20 July 2015) Photo: The Security Council unanimously adopts resolution 2231 (2015), following the historic agree- ment in Vienna last week between the E3+3 (France, Germany and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union; plus China, Russia and the United attempt by, frankly, warmongers in the U.S. Congress to He said it establishes procedures that will facilitate the States) on one hand, and Iran, on the other, on a Joint rescue their hopes for war with Iran from the jaws of a JCPOA’s implementation, enabling all States to carry Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding Iran’s peaceful solution.” out their obligations contained in the Agreement. nuclear programme. After the vote, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said “The resolution provides for the eventual removal of Credit: UN Photo Security Council Resolution 2231, adopted July 20, will all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran. It guarantees ensure the enforcement of the Joint Comprehensive that the International Atomic Energy Agency will Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iran nuclear agreement. continue to verify Iran’s compliance with its nuclear-

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 59 The Myths About the Nuclear Deal With Iran

By Thalif Deen positive step forward – and much better than more approach of the founding fathers of modern Zionism, years of stalemate and hostility,” she added. all of whom understood the importance of creating UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The single biggest misunder- “But we also have to be honest that preventing alliances with global powers. standing about the nuclear agreement with Iran is that nuclear proliferation and promoting human rights Dr M.V. Ramana, a physicist and lecturer at Princeton it is a bilateral deal with the United States. Not true. doesn’t stop with that. We welcome that Iran was one University’s Programme on Science and Global Security The agreement involved the U.N.’s five big powers, of 112 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) states and the Nuclear Futures Laboratory, told IPS the namely, the United States, Britain, France, China and parties to sign the humanitarian pledge initiated by confrontation with Iran has been built up with very little Russia, plus Germany (P5+1). Vienna this year, to ‘fill the legal gap for the prohibition evidence open to the public, allowing for all kinds of But still, right-wing conservatives and U.S. legislators and elimination of nuclear weapons’.” claims to be made. want to dissect and delegitimise an international Dr Johnson said “multilateral negotiations to ban “I hope that this deal will put an end to such Iran- agreement, whose clauses include the phased removal nuclear weapons as well as efforts to rid the bashing. In any case, I think the deal is an important of U.N. sanctions on Iran. Middle East of all nuclear and weapons of mass step in the right direction,” he said. The Security Council, where the P5 have veto powers, destruction (WMD) have to keep going forward if we The next step is for all the countries in the region to will meet next week to adopt a resolution and thereby want to avoid further proliferation and nuclear threats accept the same nuclear limitations as Iran – in particu- give its blessings to the agreement. in the future.” lar, Israel, he added. But pro-Israeli groups and some members of the U.S. Responding to the strong negative reactions from “It is high time the international community turned its Congress want it delayed, arguing the United States Israel, Hillel Schenker, Co-Editor, Palestine-Israel attention to Israel and demand that the country should take political precedence over the United Journal, told IPS that Prime Minister Benjamin Netan- eliminate its nuclear arsenal and the nuclear facilities Nations. yahu seems to think the deal between the global that allow it to manufacture nuclear weapons,” said Dr At a press conference early this week, Wendy Sher- powers and Iran is “the end of the world.” Ramana, author of “The Power of Promise: Examining man, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs His house organ, the Yisrael Hayom freebie, financed Nuclear Energy in India” and a member of the Science and a member of the U.S. negotiating team, told by the right-wing Las Vegas-based casino magnate and Security Board of the Bulletin of the Atomic reporters: “Well, the way that the U.N. Security Council Sheldon Adelson, who is active on both the Israeli and Scientists and the International Panel on Fissile Materi- resolution is structured, there is an interim period of 60 American political playing fields, greeted the deal with als. to 90 days that I think will accommodate the congres- the headline “An Eternally Disgraceful Deal”. Dr Johnson told IPS that negotiations, like baking, sional review.” The leaders of the opposition, on the other hand, have involve craft as well as science – getting the timing as And it would have been a little difficult, she said, declared that the agreement is a “bad deal”, only well as the ingredients right is crucial. “when all of the members of the P5+1 wanted to go to criticising Netanyahu for ruining Israel’s relationship She said diplomatic persistence made the time right the United Nations to get an endorsement of this since with U.S. President Barack Obama and the U.S. govern- for this deal to be brokered, but Americans, Israelis, it is a product of the United Nations process, for us to ment. Iranians, Arabs, Europeans and the rest of the world say, ‘Well, excuse me, the world, you should wait for “What we are actually witnessing however is the have to commit to going forward or it won’t succeed. the United States Congress.’” failure of Netanyahu’s policy of fear, and the triumph of “Beware of American and Israeli politicians and “The proof of the Iran nuclear deal will be in its President Obama’s policy of hope,” Schenker added. commentators who claim this agreement will enable results,” Dr Rebecca Johnson, director of the Acronym He also said, “Netanyahu was nurtured in a home Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, or that if the U.S. Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy and member of dominated by his father, the late Prof. Benzion Netan- Congress rejects the deal, more negotiations will Princeton University’s International Panel on Fissile yahu, whose analysis of the Spanish Inquisition led him deliver a better one,” she warned. Materials, told IPS. to conclude that no matter what we, the Jews and the “Sticking this non-proliferation pudding back in the “I’ve spent time talking with American and Iranian Israelis, do, the whole world will continue to be against oven at a higher heat is more likely to get us all scientists, diplomats and also human rights defenders. us, and we can only rely on ourselves.” burned.” None of us is naive about the hurdles still to be over- This approach, he argued, is totally contrary to the She said such erroneous claims just feed into the come, and yet we are convinced this agreement is a

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 60 EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini with with Iranian Photo: Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and American Secretary of State John Kerry at the Palais Coburg Hotel, the venue of the nuclear talks in Vienna, Austria on July 9, 2015. Credit: European External Action Service

hard-line minority in Iran – rump factions close to Schenker told IPS said Netanyahu’s entire political opposed to such an attack. former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – that career has been based on fear-mongering, and the The survey results are clearly the product of the fears would also benefit if this deal is rejected. need for “a strong leader” to confront the dangers. generated by Netanyahu and his allies, and much of the “I don’t think those commentators are so naive that In the recent election, this was typified by his last mainstream media commentators. However, alterna- they actually believe their criticisms of the deal. They minute declaration that “the (Israeli) Arabs are going to tive, calmer voices are also being heard, Schenker don’t want Iran to come in from the cold because – for the polling stations in droves, being bused-in by noted. whatever political or financial reasons of their own – left-wingers.” Many Israeli observers wonder why Netanyahu thinks they have a vested interest in stoking outdated rivalries But during his past three terms, the ultimate source of he can still go against the entire international commu- and continuing to demonise and isolate Iran.” fear was the threat of the Iranian bomb, which was nity, with the aid of his Republican allies in the U.S., She also said sanctions are a blunt instrument of picturesquely presented at the U.N. General Assembly given that they have no chance to overturn a presiden- coercion, usually causing most harm to the most session two years ago, and with his speech before U.S. tial veto of any obstructionist resolution that they may vulnerable – women and children – and playing into Congress last year. pass. authoritarian cliques who want to suppress human The headline in today’s Ma’ariv daily (Friday, June 17), As President Clinton once said after his first meeting rights and democracy. is that “47 percent of the Israeli public favour a military with Netanyahu back in 1996, “Who does he think he “It will be a tragic lost opportunity if these U.S. and attack on Iran following the signing of the agreement”, is? Who’s the superpower here?” Iranian hard-liners succeed in derailing this constructive despite the fact that virtually the entire leadership of (IPS | 17 July 2015) nuclear agreement,” she declared. the Israeli military and security establishment is

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 61 Perfecting Detection of the Bomb

It also aims to develop reliable tools to make sure that By Ramesh Jaura The five-day ‘Science and Technology 2015 Confer- no nuclear explosion goes undetected. VIENNA (IPS) - An international conference has high- ence’ (SnT2015), which ended Jun. 26, was the fifth in a These include seismic, hydro-acoustic, infrasound lighted advances made in detecting nuclear series of multi-disciplinary conferences organised by (frequencies too low to be heard by the human ear), explosions,tracking storms or clouds of volcanic ash, the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organiza- and radionuclide sensors. Scientists and other experts locating epicentres of earthquakes, monitoring the drift tion (CTBTO), which has been based in the Austrian demonstrated and explained in presentations and of huge icebergs, observing the movements of marine capital since 1997. posters how the four state-of-the-art technologies mammals, and detecting plane crashes. The conference was attended by more than 1100 work in practice. scientists and other experts, 170 seismic stations monitor shockwaves in the Earth, policy makers and represen- the vast majority of which are caused by earthquakes. tatives of national agencies, But man-made explosions such as mine explosions or independent academic the announced North Korean nuclear tests in 2006, research institutions and civil 2009 and 2013 have also been detected. society organisations from CTBTO’s 11 hydro-acoustic stations “listen” for sound around the world. waves in the oceans. Sound waves from explosions can SnT2015 drew attention to travel extremely far underwater. Sixty infrasound an important finding of stations on the Earth’s surface can detect ultra-low CTBTO sensors: the meteor frequency sound waves that are emitted by large that exploded over Chely- explosions. abinsk, Russia, in 2013 was CTBTO’s 80 radionuclide stations measure the atmo- the largest to hit Earth in at sphere for radioactive particles; 40 of them also pick up least a century. noble gas, the “smoking gun” from an underground Participants also heard that nuclear test. Only these measurements can give a clear the Air Algérie flight between indication as to whether an explosion detected by the Burkina Faso and Algeria other methods was actually nuclear or not. Sixteen which crashed in Mali in July laboratories support radionuclide stations. 2014 was detected by the When complete, CTBTO’s International Monitoring CTBTO’s monitoring station in System (IMS) will consist of 337 facilities spanning the Cote d’Ivoire, 960 kilometres globe to monitor the planet for signs of nuclear explo- from the impact of the sions. Nearly 90 percent of the facilities are already up aircraft. and running. The importance of SnT2015 An important theme of the conference was perfor- lies in the fact that CTBTO is mance optimisation which, according to W. Randy Bell, tasked with campaigning for Director of CTBTO’s International Data Centre (IDC), the Comprehensive Nuclear- “will have growing relevance as we sustain and recapi- Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), which talise the IMS and IDC in the year ahead.” outlaws nuclear explosions by In the past 20 years, the international community has everyone, everywhere: on invested more than one billion dollars in the global the Earth’s surface, in the monitoring system whose data can be used by CTBTO atmosphere, underwater and member states – and not only for test ban verification underground.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 62 purposes. All stations are connected through satellite She added: “South Africa has been at the forefront of With a view to bridging science and policy, the forum links to the IDC in Vienna. nuclear non-proliferation in Africa for over twenty discussed ‘technical education for policymakers and “Our stations do not necessarily have to be in the years. We gave up our nuclear arsenal and signed the policy education for scientists’ with the participation of same country as the event, but in fact can detect Pelindaba Treaty in 1996, which establishes Africa as a eminent experts, including Rebecca Johnson, executive events from far outside from where they are located. nuclear weapons-free zone, a zone that only came into director of the Acronym Institute for Disarmament For example, the last DPRK (North Korean) nuclear test force in July 2009. Diplomacy; Nikolai Sokov of the James Martin Center was picked up as far as Peru,” CTBTO’s Public Informa- Beside the presentations by scientists, discussion for Non-proliferation Studies; Ference Dalnoki-Veress tion Officer Thomas Mützelburg told IPS. panels addressed topics of current special interest in of the Middlebury Institute for International Studies; “Our 183 member states have access to both the raw the CTBT monitoring community. One alluded to the Edward Ifft of the Center for Security Studies, George- data and the analysis results. Through their national role of science in on-site inspections (OSIs), which are town; and Matt Yedlin of the Faculty of Science at the data centres, they study both and arrive at their own provided for under the Treaty after it enters into force. University of British Columbia. conclusion as to the possible nature of events This discussion benefited from the experience of the There was general agreement on the need to inte- detected,” he said. Scientists from Papua New Guinea 2014 Integrated Field Exercise (IFE14) in Jordan. “IFE14 grate technical issues of CTBT into training for diplo- and Argentina said they found the data “extremely was the largest and most comprehensive such exercise mats and other policymakers, and increasing awareness useful”. so far conducted in the build-up of CTBTO’s OSI capa- of CTBT and broader nuclear non-proliferation and Stressing the importance of data sharing, CTBTO bilities,” said IDC director Bell. disarmament policy issues within the scientific commu- Executive Secretary, Lassina Zerbo, said in aninterview Participants also had an opportunity to listen to a nity. with Nature: “If you make your data available, you discussion on the opportunities that new and emerging Yet another panel – comprising Jean du Preez, chief of connect with the outside scientific community and you technologies can play in overcoming the challenges of CTBTO’s external relations, protocol and international keep abreast of developments in science and technol- nuclear security. Members of the Technology for Global cooperation, Piece Corden of the American Association ogy. Not only does it make the CTBTO more visible, it Security (Tech4GS) group joined former U.S. Secretary for the Advancement of Science, Thomas Blake of the also pushes us to think outside the box. If you see that of Defense William Perry in a panel discussion on Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, and Jenifer data can serve another purpose, that helps you to step ‘Citizen Networks: the Promise of Technological Mackby of the Federation of American Scientists – back a little bit, look at the broader picture and see how Innovation’. looked ahead with a view to forging new and better you can improve your detection.” “We are verging on another nuclear arms race,” said links with and beyond academia, effectively engaging In opening remarks to the conference, Zerbo said: Perry. “I do not think that it is irreversible. This is the with the civil society, the youth and the media. “You will have heard me say again and again that I am time to stop and reflect, debate the issue and see if “Progress comes in increments,” said one panellist, passionate about this organisation. Today I am not only there’s some third choice, some alternative, between “but not by itself.” passionate but very happy to see all of you who share doing nothing and having a new arms race.” (IPS | 30 June 2015) this passion: a passion for science in the service of A feature of the conference was the CTBT Academic (With inputs from Valentina Gasbarri) peace. It gives me hope for the future of our children Forum focused on ‘Strengthening the CTBT through Photo: CTBTO Executive Secretary Lassina Zerbo that the best and brightest scientists of our time Academic Engagement’, at which Bob Frye, prestigious introducing the panel discussion on 'Citizen Networks: congregate to perfect the detection of the bomb Emmy award-winning producer and director of docu- The Promise of Technological Innovation' at SnT2015 in instead of working to perfect the bomb itself.” mentaries and network news programme, pleaded for Vienna, June 2015. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon set the the need to inspire “the next generation of critical Credit: CTBTO tone in a message to the conference when he said: thinkers” to help usher in a world free of nuclear tests “With a strong verification regime and its cutting edge and atomic weapons of mass destruction. technology, there is no excuse for further delaying the The forum also provided an overview of impressive CTBT’s entry into force.” CTBT online educational resources and experiences South African Minister of Science and Technology, with teaching the CTBT from the perspective of teach- Naledi Pandor, pointed out that her country “is a ers and professors in Austria, Canada, China, Costa Rica, committed and consistent supporter” of CTBTO. Pakistan and Russia.

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 63 CTBTO, the Nuclear Watchdog That Never Sleeps

By Thalif Deen When completed, the system will have 337 stations The monitoring network has also helped tsunami placed globally to monitor every corner of the planet warning centres announce rapid warnings, in real time, UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The world’s nuclear powers effectively. after severe earthquakes; improved meteorological may succeed in thwarting sanctions by the Security “Even before entering into force, the CTBT is saving models for more accurate weather forecasting; and Council or avoiding condemnation by the General lives,” says U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. provided insights into volcanic eruptions. Assembly, but they cannot escape the scrutiny of a key Currently, the network collects some 15 gigabytes of Additionally, it has enhanced the alerts that civil international watchdog body: the Comprehensive data daily, which it sends in real-time to the CTBTO’s aviation authorities use, in real time, to warn pilots Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO). data analysis centre in Vienna, Austria. about damaging volcanic dust; provide more precise Literally, its monitoring network keeps its ear to the From there, a daily analysis report is sent to the information about climate change; increased under- ground tracking down surreptitious nuclear tests – CTBTO’s 183 Member States for their own use and standing of the structure of the Earth’s inner core; and while also detecting earthquakes and volcanic erup- analysis. followed the migratory habits and the effects of climate tions in near real-time or tracking large storms and This universal system of looking, listening and sniffing change on marine life. drifting icebergs.” the Earth is the work of CTBTO, which every two years To access the data, the CTBTO has created a Virtual And the network never sleeps because it has been hosts a scientific and technical conference. Data Exploitation Centre which provides scientists and working around the clock ever since it was installed 18 This year’s Science and Technology Conference is researchers from many different disciplines with data years ago – primarily to detect nuclear explosions scheduled to take place June 22-26 at the Hofburg for research and enables them to publish new findings. above ground and underneath. Palace in the Austrian capital of Vienna. Rave reviews have come from several academics. The network is a way to guard against test ban treaty The CTBTO’s monitoring network has had a superlative “The International Monitoring System is a fantastic violations because the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test- track record: on Feb. 12, 2013, 94 of the network’s tool for monitoring the planet’s core, atmosphere, Ban Treaty (CTBT) prohibits nuclear explosions world- seismic monitoring stations and two of its infrasound oceans, or environment,” says Dr. Raymond Jeanloz, wide: in the atmosphere, underwater and under- stations detected and alerted Member States to a professor of Geophysics and Astronomy at the Univer- ground. nuclear detonation more than an hour before North sity of California, Berkeley. “The CTBTO’s International Monitoring System has Korea announced it had conducted a test. “The CTBTO data give us a glimpse of the Earth’s deep found a wider mission than its creators ever foresaw: Three days later, on Feb. 15, 2013, the CTBTO’s interior -what’s happening there and how it evolved monitoring an active and evolving Earth,” Dr. Lassina infrasound monitoring stations detected signals made over Earth’s history,” says Professor Miaki Ishii, Depart- Zerbo, Executive Secretary of CTBTO, told IPS. by a meteor that had entered the atmosphere and ment of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Harvard Univer- He said some compare the system to a combined disintegrated in the skies over Chelyabinsk, Russia. sity. giant Earth stethoscope and sniffer that looks, listens, The CTBTO network – described as the only global one And Randy Bell, director of the CTBTO’s International feels and sniffs for planetary irregularities. of its kind to detect infrasound – recorded the shock Data Centre, says: “The global data are extremely It’s the only global network which detects atmospheric wave caused by the exploding fireball. valuable because they span decades, are high quality radioactivity and sound waves which humans cannot That data helped scientists to locate the meteor, and highly calibrated. The data can be used to analyse hear, said Dr. Zerbo. measure the energy release, its altitude and size. local, regional or global events.” The CTBTO’s global monitoring network now com- And the system’s atmospheric sampling tracked the Bell says that his primary job is to look for nuclear prises 300 stations, some in the most remote and invisible plume of radioactivity from the March 2011 tests, but allowing the data to be used for science gets inaccessible areas of the Earth and sea. Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster, as it more experts looking at the data. The network captures four types of data: seismic spread around the globe. “What may be noise to me might be a signal to (shockwaves in the earth), hydroacoustic (measuring It showed that radioactivity outside of Japan was someone else,” he says. sound through water), infrasound (low frequency below harmful levels. That knowledge helped public Meanwhile, on a single day, the CTBTO’s International sound) and radionuclide (radioactivity). It is about 90 safety officials around the world understand what Data Centre analyses over 30,000 seismic signals to percent complete. course of action to take, according to CTBTO. identify events that meet stringent criteria.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 64 The CTBTO says that though many countries have Mountains and around the northern Pacific. payback and in turn increase support for the Treaty. their own seismic monitoring systems, the CTBTO The data has been used to track the migratory habits “As more scientists and organisations make use of the monitors are “global, permanent, calibrated and the of a particular species of Blue Whale in the Indian data, the value has become ever more apparent,” says data are shared equally.” Ocean. Dr. Zerbo. Its seismic network has been monitoring infrasound “The nations of the world have invested about one (IPS |17 June 2015) extending all the way to sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern billion dollars to create The Global Ear,” says Dr. Zerbo. Additional input by Valentina Gasbarri in Vienna. and Southern Africa, Indonesia and Antarctica. “Every year they continue their investment, hoping it Photo: CTBTO Head Lassina Zerbo overseeing the The CTBTO also has a network of underground will never have to be used for its intended purpose of equipment in use during the Integrated Field Exercise listening posts located in some of the world’s most detecting a violation of the Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty. IFE14 in Jordan from Nov. 3 to Dec. 9, 2014. Photo remote waters listening to earthquakes in the Andes Civil and scientific spinoffs show the world immediate Courtesy of CTBTO

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 65 World’s Nuke Arsenal Declines Haltingly While Modernisation Rises Rapidly

By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - The world’s stockpile of nuclear weapons, held by nine states, just got a little smaller. But modernisation continues to rise rapidly, warns the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its annual 2015 Yearbook released June 15. The study said the total number of nuclear warheads in the world is declining, primarily due to the United States and Russia continuing to reduce their nuclear arsenals. “But this is at a slower pace compared with a decade ago,” the Yearbook said. At the same time, both countries have “extensive and expensive” long-term modernisation programmes under way for their remaining nuclear delivery systems, warheads and production. Currently, there are nine states—the United States, Russia, UK, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea – armed with approximately 15,850 nuclear weapons, of which 4,300 were deployed with operational forces. Roughly 1,800 of these weapons are being kept in a state of high operational alert. “Despite renewed international interest in prioritizing nuclear disarmament, the modernisation programmes under way in the nuclear weapon-possessing states suggests that none of them will give up their nuclear arsenals in the foreseeable future,” says SIPRI Senior Researcher Shannon Kile. Asked for her response, Alice Slater, New York director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and who serves on the Coordinating Committee of Abolition 2000, told IPS the disheartening news from SIPRI’s report is that all nine nuclear weapons states are modernising their nuclear arsenals – and particularly the five major nuclear weapons states: the United States, Russia, UK, France and China. All five countries, she pointed out, actually pledged, in the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which was

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 66 extended indefinitely in 1995, “to pursue negotiations international conference in March 2016 to ban nuclear, address the catastrophic humanitarian consequence of in good faith on effective measures relating to cessa- biological and chemical weapons and ballistic missiles in nuclear war. tion of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to the region of the Middle East”. At the recent NPT, which broke up in failure without a nuclear disarmament”. Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has consensus document, 107 nations signed on to a Nevertheless, this disregard of promises given and never joined the NPT and is reported to have nuclear humanitarian pledge, offered by Austria, to “fill the repeated at successive five-year NPT review confer- weapons, he pointed out. legal gap” for nuclear disarmament. ences – with the U.S., for example, projecting expendi- Other important issues discussed at the conference Unwilling to be held hostage to the “security” con- tures of one trillion dollars over the next 30 years for included the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons cerns of the nuclear weapons states, the non-nuclear two new bomb factories, missiles, planes and subma- (HINW), an initiative supported by 159 non-nuclear- weapons states have pledged to press forward to rines to deliver newly designed nuclear weapons – has weapon States drawing on the results of international outlaw nuclear weapons without them. given fresh impetus to an international campaign by conferences held in Oslo (2013), Nayarit (2014) and She said South Africa was particularly eloquent, non-nuclear weapons states to negotiate a treaty to Vienna (2014) – where it was made clear that no State, comparing the current regime of nuclear haves and ban the bomb, declaring nuclear weapons illegal and no international relief organisation nor any other entity have-nots to a form of “nuclear apartheid”. prohibited – just as the world has done for chemical has the capacity to deal with the humanitarian, envi- After the 70th anniversary of the tragic destruction of and biological weapons, said Slater. ronmental, food and socio-economic consequences of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is expected that negotia- Besides the United States and Russia, SIPRI said the a nuclear weapon detonation. tions will begin, she said. nuclear arsenals of the other nuclear-armed states are These States called for a legally-binding prohibition on While some argue that this would be ineffective considerably smaller, but all are either developing or nuclear weapons, such as the prohibitions on biological without the participation of the nuclear weapons deploying new nuclear weapon systems or have and chemical weapons. states, great pressure will be brought to bear on the announced their intention to do so. The five declared nuclear-weapon States – China, “weasel” states, who mouth their fealty to nuclear In the case of China, this may involve a modest France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United disarmament, while sheltering in military alliances increase in the size of its nuclear arsenal, said SIPRI. States, also the veto-wielding members of the Security under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, said Slater. India and Pakistan are both expanding their nuclear Council – rejected all such demands and firmly insisted Last week, the Dutch parliament, a NATO (North weapon production capabilities and developing new that their nuclear weapons were not at any risk of Atlantic Treaty Organisation) state, dependent on U.S. missile delivery systems. accidental or deliberate detonation. nuclear protection, voted to support the Humanitarian North Korea appears to be advancing its military “Thus, an opportunity has been lost to push for a safer Pledge to fill the legal gap. nuclear programme, but its technical progress is Middle East without weapons of mass destruction, and “One should expect more weakening of the nuclear difficult to assess based on open sources, according to for steps leading to the global elimination of nuclear phalanx, striding the world and holding us all hostage, the Yearbook. weapons – at least until the next five-yearly NPT Review as NATO states and Asian allies relying on U.S. nuclear The latest SIPRI report follows the failure of an NPT Conference in held in 2020,” Rauf added. deterrence feel the approbation of a vibrant grassroots review conference in New York last month. No one should take any comfort in this, neither the campaign, around the world, working for a ban treaty,” Tariq Rauf, SIPRI’s director of the Disarmament, Arms 192 parties to the NPT nor the non-parties, India, Israel said Slater. Control and Non-Proliferation Programme, expressed and Pakistan, because the dangers of nuclear weapons (IPS | 15 June 2015) disappointment over the failure of the review confer- affect everyone on this planet, said Rauf, a former There is no reference to the photo credit on neither the ence in which 161 states participated “with little to senior official at the International Atomic Energy project website nor IPS website show for their effort.” Agency (2002-2012) dealing with nuclear verification, He said agreement on a final document was blocked non-proliferation and disarmament. by the United States, with the support of Britain and Slater told IPS there has been a successful series of Canada – “their reason being that they were adamantly conferences with civil society and governments over opposed to putting pressure on Israel to attend an the past two years – in Norway, Mexico and Austria – to

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 67 Nuclear Weapons Free World No Lost Cause

By Jamshed Baruah “With respect to the Middle East, the Secretary- promises made in 2010 – such as diminishing the role General continues to stand ready to support efforts to of nuclear weapons in security doctrines, excised from BERLIN | NEW YORK (IDN) – The forthcoming 70th promote and sustain the inclusive regional dialogue the draft. It also suggested that work on nuclear anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and necessary to achieve this goal,” Ban’s spokesperson disarmament at the UN General Assembly be done by Nagasaki in August is an appropriate occasion to start said. consensus, even though that forum has always oper- developing a legally binding instrument prohibiting In how far this offer would be helpful, remains to be ated through democratic voting procedures,” argues nuclear weapons. This, according to experts, is the seen. Rose Gottemoeller, the U.S. Under Secretary of Minor. distinct message emerging from the four-week long State for Arms Control and International Security, has “Overall, the draft strongly reflected the priorities of United Nations conference, which ended without an described as “unrealistic and unworkable” the demand the NPT’s five officially nuclear-armed states (United outcome document on May 22. from Egypt to set a deadline for the convening of a Kingdom, France, Russia, China, USA) and their nuclear The failure of the 2015 Review Conference of the conference on a zone in the Middle East free of allies, in favour of upholding a status quo which Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of weapons of mass destruction – a conference the last features little activity on disarmament on the one hand Nuclear Weapons (NPT) to reach consensus on a NPT review in 2010 had stipulated must take place by and the modernisation of nuclear arsenals on the substantive outcome has prompted the UN Secretary- 2012. other,” adds Minor. General Ban Ki-moon to express his “disappointment”, Ban hopes that the growing awareness of the devas- The Federation of American Scientists says: “More which is widely shared. tating humanitarian consequences of any use of than two decades after the Cold War ended, the But the conference had two positive outcomes: the nuclear weapons would continue to compel urgent world’s combined inventory of nuclear warheads Humanitarian Pledge, initiated by Austria, representing actions for effective measures leading to the prohibi- remains at a very high level: approximately 15,700. Of a commitment of more than 100 states to work for the tion and elimination of nuclear weapons. these, around 4,100 warheads are considered opera- prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons; and The Secretary-General’s remarks address the basic tional, of which about 1,800 U.S. and Russian warheads recognition of the crucial role of the Vienna-based issues at the heart of disagreement in the NPT review are on high alert, ready for use on short notice.” Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization conference from April 27 to May 22 in New York – and Most warheads are many times more powerful than (CTBTO) in facilitating steps towards a nuclear weapons this in spite of the fact that the NPT, which entered into the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A single free world. force in 1970 and to which meanwhile 191 states have nuclear warhead, if detonated on a large city, could kill The conference failed not only – as the United States, subscribed, is regarded the cornerstone of the non- millions of people, with the effects persisting for the United Kingdom and Canada claimed – because of proliferation regime. decades, experts say. the lack of agreement over the Middle East. Also the The treaty covers three mutually reinforcing pillars – “Despite significant reductions in U.S., Russian, French draft outcome document was generally considered disarmament, non-proliferation, and peaceful uses of and British nuclear forces compared with Cold War deeply flawed on disarmament. nuclear energy – and is the basis for international levels, all the nuclear weapon states continue to In a statement, the Secretary-General’s spokesperson cooperation on stopping the spread of nuclear weap- modernize their remaining nuclear forces and appear said on May 23 that Ban regretted “in particular that ons. However, the official nuclear weapon states – committed to retaining nuclear weapons for the States parties were unable to narrow their differences Britain, France, Russia, China and USA – are faulted for indefinite future,” says FAS. on the future of nuclear disarmament or to arrive at a not doing enough for nuclear disarmament. According to Stephen Young, a senior analyst at Union new collective vision on how to achieve a Middle East of Concerned Scientists, Obama administration plans to zone free of nuclear weapons and all other weapons of Roll back rebuild the entire U.S. nuclear arsenal, including the mass destruction”. According to Elizabeth Minor’s analysis in ‘Open warheads, and the missiles, planes and submarines that At the same time, Ban appealed to all States to sustain Democracy’, the draft document contained no mean- carry them. These plans will cost $348 billion over the the momentum they had built over the previous five ingful commitments by the nuclear-armed states and next 10 years, according to a Congressional Budget years. These included new initiatives in the pursuit of their allies. It set out few clear activities and no dead- Office estimate beginning of 2015. The National nuclear disarmament and continuing efforts to lines. Defense Panel, appointed by Congress, found that the strengthen nuclear non-proliferation. “Indeed, in many areas it rolled back on disarmament

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 68 price tag over 30 years could be as much as a $1 trillion. While the U.S. blamed Egypt, others from the Middle East expressed anger that the interests of Israel, a nuclear-armed state outside the NPT, had been priori- tized over the interests of NPT member states. “Their criticisms seemed to be borne out when Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu reportedly thanked the U.S., UK and Canadian governments for ‘blocking an Egyptian- led drive on a possible Middle East nuclear arms ban’, writes Rebecca Johnson. Anti-democratic and non-transparent According to Reaching Critical Will (RCW), “The process to develop the draft Review Conference outcome document was anti-democratic and non- transparent. Several delegations, including ASEAN, expressed their sense of frustration with and exclusion from the process . . . South Africa lambasted the NPT for denigrating into rule of the minority, where the few have control even when it doesn't make sense.” RCW points out that, as a large, cross-regional group of 47 states argued in a statement delivered by Austria, the discussions during the Conference and resulting text demonstrated the “urgency to act upon the unacceptable humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons,” but then fell “dramatically short of making already been identified as the appropriate milestone These gaps can be filled by determined action to credible progress on filling the legal gap.” for this process to commence.” stigmatise, prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons. 107 states – the majority of the world's countries (and Observers agree with Acheson that a treaty banning “History honours only the brave,” declared Costa Rica. of NPT states parties) – have highlighted this legal gap nuclear weapons remains the most feasible course of “Now is the time to work for what is to come, the world and have committed to fill it, by endorsing the Humani- action for states committed to disarmament. “This we want and deserve.” tarian Pledge issued by Austria. These states have Review Conference has demonstrated beyond any RCW argues: “Those who reject nuclear weapons must collectively demonstrated their empowerment by doubt that continuing to rely on the nuclear-armed have the courage of their convictions to move ahead demanding that their security concerns be considered states or their nuclear-dependent allies for leadership without the nuclear-armed states, to take back ground equal to those of the nuclear-armed states. or action is futile.” from the violent few who purport to run the world, and RCW, headed by Ray Acheson, is of the view that As the 47 states represented in the Austrian state- build a new reality of human security and global these states – and those that endorse the pledge after ment highlighted, “The exchanges of views that we justice.” this Conference – must now use the pledge as the basis have witnessed during this review cycle demonstrate [IDN-InDepthNews – 29 May 2015] for a new process to develop a legally binding instru- that there is a wide divide that presents itself in many Photo: NPT Review Conference ment prohibiting nuclear weapons. “This process fundamental aspects of what nuclear disarmament Credit: CTBTO should begin without delay. The 70th anniversary of the should mean. There is a reality gap, a credibility gap, a atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has confidence gap and a moral gap.”

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 69 Failure of Review Conference Brings World Close to Nuclear Cataclysm, Warn Activists

As the Review Conference dragged towards midnight Friday, there were three countries – the United States, UK, and Canada (whose current government has been described as “more pro-Israel than Israel itself”) – that said they cannot accept the draft agreement, contained in the Final Document, on convening of the proposed conference by March 1, 2016. As Acheson put it: “It is perhaps ironic, then, that three of these states prevented the adoption of this outcome document on behalf of Israel, a country with nuclear weapons, that is not even party to the NPT.” The Review Conference president’s claim that the NPT belongs to all its states parties has never rung more hollow, she added. Joseph Gerson, disarmament coordinator at the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) told IPS the United States was primarily responsible, as in the 2005 review conference, for the failure of this year’s critically important NPT Review Conference. “The United States and Israel, that is, even if Israel is Photo: United States Secretary of State John Kerry one of the very few nations that has yet to sign onto addresses the 2015 Review Conference of the Parties the NPT,” he pointed out. to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Rather than blame Israel, he said, the U.S., Britain and Weapons (NPT) on April 27. The United States, along Canada are blaming the victim, charging that Egypt with the UK, and Canada, rejected the draft agreement. wrecked the conference with its demands that the Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe Review Conference’s final declaration reiterate the call for creation of a Middle East Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone. But, the tail was once again wagging the dog, said By Thalif Deen Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), told IPS. Gerson, who is also the AFSC’s director of Peace and UNITED NATIONS, May 23 2015 (IPS) - After nearly four She said it contained no meaningful progress on Economic Security Programme. weeks of negotiations, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation nuclear disarmament and even rolled back some He said that Reuters news agency reported on Thurs- Treaty (NPT) Review Conference ended in a predictable previous commitments. day, the day prior to the conclusion of the NPT Review outcome: a text overwhelmingly reflecting the views But, according to several diplomats, there was one Conference, that the United States sent “a senior U.S. and interests of the nuclear-armed states and some of country that emerged victorious: Israel, the only official” to Israel “to discuss the possibility of a compro- their nuclear-dependent allies. nuclear-armed Middle Eastern nation, which has never mise” on the draft text of the Review Conference’s final “The process to develop the draft Review Conference fully supported a long outstanding proposal for an document. outcome document was anti-democratic and nontrans- international conference for a Middle East free of “Israeli apparently refused, and (U.S. President) Barack parent,” Ray Acheson, director, Reaching Critical Will, weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). Obama’s ostensible commitments to a nuclear weapons-free world melted in the face of Israeli - JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 70 intransigence,” said Gerson. the appropriate milestone for this process to com- Despite commitments made in 1995, when the NPT John Burroughs, executive director of the Lawyers mence.” was indefinitely extended and in subsequent Review Committee on Nuclear Policy, told IPS the problem with Acheson also said a treaty banning nuclear weapons Conferences, and reiterated in the 2000 and 2010 NPT Review Conference commitments on disarmament remains the most feasible course of action for states Review Conference final documents to work for a made over the last 20 years is not so much that they committed to disarmament. nuclear weapons-free zone in the Middle East, Obama have not been strong enough. Rather the problem is “This Review Conference has demonstrated beyond was unwilling to say “No” to Israel and “Yes” to an that they have not been implemented by the NPT any doubt that continuing to rely on the nuclear-armed important step to reducing the dangers of nuclear war, nuclear weapon states. states or their nuclear-dependent allies for leadership said Gerson. Coming into the 2015 Review Conference, he said, or action is futile,” she said. “As we have been reminded by the Conferences on many non-nuclear weapon states were focused on This context requires determined action to stigmatise, the Human Consequences of Nuclear War held in mechanisms and processes to ensure implementation. prohibit, and eliminate nuclear weapons. Norway, Mexico and Austria, between the nuclear In this vein, the draft, but not adopted Final Docu- “Those who reject nuclear weapons must have the threats made by all of the nuclear powers and their ment, recommended that the General Assembly courage of their convictions to move ahead without the histories of nuclear weapons accidents and miscalcula- establish an open-ended working group to “identify and nuclear-armed states, to take back ground from the tions, that we are alive today is more a function of luck elaborate” effective disarmament measures, including violent few who purport to run the world, and build a than of policy decisions.” legal agreements for the achievement and mainte- new reality of human security and global justice,” The failure of Review Conference is thus much more nance of a nuclear weapons free world. Acheson declared. than a lost opportunity, it brings us closer to nuclear Regardless of the lack of an NPT outcome, this Gerson told IPS the greater tragedy is that the failure cataclysms, he declared. initiative can and should be pushed at the next General of the Review Conference further undermines the Burroughs told IPS debate in the Review Conference Assembly session on disarmament and international credibility of the NPT, increasing the dangers of nuclear revealed deep divisions over whether the nuclear security, this coming fall, said Burroughs, who is also weapons proliferation and doing nothing to stanch new weapon states have met their commitments to de- executive director of the U.N. Office of the Interna- nuclear arms races as the nuclear powers “modernize” alert, reduce, and eliminate their arsenals and whether tional Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms their nuclear arsenals and delivery systems for the 21st modernisation of nuclear arsenals is compatible with (IALANA). century continues apace. achieving disarmament. Acheson told IPS that 107 states— the majority of the He said the failure of the Review Conference increases The nuclear weapon states stonewalled on these world’s countries (and of NPT states parties)—have the dangers of nuclear catastrophe and the likelihood matters. endorsed a Humanitarian Pledge, committing to fill the of nuclear winter. If the nuclear weapons states displayed a business as legal gap for the prohibition and elimination of nuclear The U.S. veto illustrates the central importance of usual attitude, the approach of non-nuclear weapon weapons. breaking the silos of single issue popular movements if states was characterised by a sense of urgency, illus- The outcome from the 2015 NPT Review Conference is the people’s power needed to move governments – trated by the fact that by the end of the Conference the Humanitarian Pledge, she added. especially the United States – is to be built. over 100 states had signed the “Humanitarian Pledge” The states endorsing the Pledge now and after this Had there been more unity between the U.S. nuclear put forward by Austria. Conference must use it as the basis for a new process disarmament movement and forces pressing for a just It commits signatories to efforts to “stigmatize, to develop a legally-binding instrument prohibiting Israeli-Palestinian peace in recent decades, the out- prohibit and eliminate nuclear weapons in light of their nuclear weapons. come of the Review Conference could have been unacceptable humanitarian consequences”. “This process should begin without delay, even different, noted Gerson. (IPS | 23 May 2015) without the participation of the nuclear-armed states. “If we are to prevail, nuclear disarmament movements The 70th anniversary of the atomic bombings of must make common cause with movements for peace, Hiroshima and Nagasaki has already been identified as justice and environmental sustainability.”

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 71 Opinion: Universalisation and Strengthening Nuke Treaty Review Need to be Qualitative

By Ambassador A. L. A. Azeez This is reflected in the outcomes of the review confer- to the other two pillars of NPT? Is cautious optimism in ences, particularly that of the 2010 Review Conference, order? NEW YORK (IPS) - “Strengthening the Review Process” where a clear commitment was made, that disarma- A measure of pessimism has already set in, and has and “Universalisation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty” ment would be taken forward in ‘good faith’ and ‘at an the potential to become irreversibly dominant. It would (NPT) are distinctly substantive issues, that require early date’. be so, unless and until there is an urgent re-summoning consideration with their specificities in view. Nevertheless, those who possess nuclear arsenals of necessary political will to achieve a radical change in Nevertheless, there are a few aspects pertaining to the have not lived up to the commitments. our mindsets as well as in our policies and programmes. themes, which undoubtedly make them inter-related. The ‘forward looking’ thrust of the process, which was Universalisation of the Treaty is an objective that They should not be lost sight of, as the NPT Review originally intended to inspire positive action, has sadly, needs to be continuously promoted. But behind what Conference, which concludes its month long session due to overwhelming convergence of strategic inter- has led to this call remains its indefinite extension that Friday, moves along its agenda. ests, or other reasons, become an exercise of reinvent- was achieved in 1995. The five-yearly review process has been effectively ing the wheel. If there had been no agreement on extension in 1995, reduced to one of stock-taking - of unmet timelines, What is now required is to clearly state timelines and there would be no treaty left behind today. The goal of benchmarks and undertakings. verification and other measures in any plan of action to strengthening the review process must therefore The issue of strengthening the review process arose be adopted. inspire, and be inspired by, the goal of universalisation. pursuant to, and as part of, the 1995 Review and Exten- There has been no progress in nuclear disarmament. The logic that led to the extension of the Treaty needs sion Conference. It remains on the agenda of each Main Nuclear non-proliferation has made only a little head- to bear on the call for its universalisation, both as part Committee of the NPT Review Conference since then. way in a few regions. The impact on ‘peaceful uses’, of of, and pursuant to, review process. While a special feature of the 1995 process is its restrictive and control measures, is all too apparent. The extension of the Treaty is indefinite, and it was important adjunct, the indefinite extension of the Treaty, They often appear to border on denial of technology. intended to be outcome-oriented. When the three a specific expectation of the outcome of that process The total lack of progress in the field of nuclear pillars of the Treaty are advanced equally, and progress was strengthening of the three pillars of the Treaty. disarmament as against corresponding increase in towards nuclear disarmament becomes irreversible, This was sought to be achieved in such a way that the restrictive or control measures in the area of ‘peaceful the Treaty would be said to have achieved its objective. implementation of the three pillars would be consum- uses’, with nuclear non-proliferation swinging A strengthened review process would thus contribute mate and mutually reinforcing. in-between, presents a spectre of regression for all a great deal towards realising this intended outcome. One should not be oblivious, however, to what provided humanity. The goal of universalisation, however, needs to be the immediate context for indefinite extension. It was It seems to be reinforcing the view among countries, advanced with a time span in view, and above all, it the expectation that those countries, which retained which look to ‘peaceful uses’ as a component in their needs to be qualitative. their nuclear weapons under the Treaty, would take national energy policies, or development strategies, What does all this mean? practical measures towards the elimination of nuclear that leaving aside the treaty construct of ‘three pillars’, We should no doubt count on and increase the arsenals. playing field is not level, and will not be, in the foresee- number of adherences, but equally, we should also It was noted then, with concern, that expected mea- able future. emphasise the overall importance of integrating, sures towards the elimination of nuclear arsenals had In diplomacy, the emphasis always is on staying without discrimination inter se, all the provisions of the floundered within the 25 years preceding the 1995 positive. As the review process is in its last week, the Treaty. National policies and programmes of State review and extension process. call for it is growing stronger. parties need to reflect these thereby enabling the Underpinning this standpoint was the commitment by But can one conceivably do so in the current scenario, advancement of its three pillars. nuclear weapon states that they would pursue disarma- which appears fraught with far too many challenges in The review process should strengthen efforts to ment as a matter of priority and without delay. area of nuclear disarmament with its inter-relationship achieve this twin goal. (IPS | 19 May 2015)

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 72 Q&A: Nuclear Disarmament a Non-Starter, “But I Would Love to Be Proven Wrong”

By Thalif Deen She pointed out that nuclear weapons states (NWS) over 30 nuclear-capable states may move forward to are offering the same old rhetoric while upgrading their nuclear weapon capability. My greatest fear is that the Interview with Dr Jennifer Allen Simons, Founder and arsenals and planning for a long future with nuclear catalyst to elimination will be the detonation of a President of the Simons Foundation, dedicated to the weapons. nuclear weapon, by accident, miscalculation, design or elimination of nuclear weapons “The most that may happen is consensus on lowering a successful cyberattack will trigger the highly auto- UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - Albert Einstein, the the operational status of nuclear weapons,” said Dr mated system or a spoofed attack. internationally-renowned physicist who developed the Simons, who was an adviser to the Canadian govern- While the U.S. feels its system is impenetrable, theory of relativity, once famously remarked: “I know not ment delegation to the 2000 NPT Review Conference however a recent report from the U.S. Defence Science with what weapons World War III will be fought, but and the 2002 NPT Prepcom. Board warned that the vulnerability of the U.S. com- World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” The global zero commission report on de-alerting has mand and control system had never been fully Perhaps Einstein visualised a nuclear annihilation in the been well received, said Dr Simons, who was at the assessed. It is not known whether Russia’s and China‘s next world war, with disastrous consequences in its United Nations last week for the NPT Review Confer- systems are vulnerable. It also cannot be assumed that aftermath: humanity going back to the Stone Age. ence, and whose foundation, established to eliminate India’s and Pakistan’s systems are invulnerable. According to most peace activists, the move to elimi- nuclear weapons, is commemorating its 30th anniver- Russian President Vladimir Putin’s flaunting of Russia’s nate nuclear weapons is not gaining traction, with no sary this year. nuclear option is worrying and an obstacle to changing hopeful signs of an ideal world without deadly weapons Excerpts from the interview follow. the political salience of nuclear weapons and also of mass destruction. Q: Judging by the current NPT negotiations, do you provides the other NWS states with a rationale for Over the last few decades, the five major nuclear think the Review Conference will succeed in adopting retaining and upgrading their weapons. powers – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and an outcome document, by consensus, by May 22? Q: Will we ever see nuclear disarmament in our China – have been joined by four more: India, Pakistan, A: Though it is too early to tell, so far it seems likely lifetime or perhaps within the next 50 years? Israel, and North Korea. they will get a consensus document, and if so, it will not A: It could happen within my lifetime — and probably And if Iran goes nuclear – even later than sooner – contain the convention/ban, humanitarian impact only if there was a detonation. This would be such a Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey are likely to follow in its issues. I heard that several delegations are prepared to tragic event and a crime against humanity that it would footsteps. push for disarmament convention/ban or framework of prompt a ban. The most frightening worst-case scenario is the new agreements through the open-ended working group if The irony of all this is that everyone is afraid to use Cold War between the United States and Russia, trig- NPT consensus on this issue fails. them, the military don’t like them not only because of gered primarily by the political crisis in Ukraine and Q: Will the new Cold War between the U.S. and committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, but Russian annexation of Crimea. Russia have an impact on the outcome of the Review worse, they cost so much to maintain and the military A proposal on the sidelines of a month-long review Conference? would rather have the money for other weapons. conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty A: It may not have an impact because the NWS are not Frankly, I will never understand why people want to (NPT), which concludes next week, is to begin negotia- going to eliminate their arsenals. The new Strategic kill. tions on a proposed international convention to elimi- Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is on track with reduc- (IPS | 11 May 2015) nate all nuclear weapons worldwide. tions, but I do not believe we will see another bilateral Asked if the proposal will be a reality, Dr. Jennifer Allen commitment for further reductions. Simons, founder and president of the Simons Founda- Q: What, in your view, are the major obstacles for tion, a relentless advocate of nuclear disarmament, total nuclear disarmament? bluntly told IPS: “I think it is a non-starter,” but added: “I A: The major obstacle may be fear! Lack of trust would love to be proven wrong.” between Russia and the West, lack of trust that the

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 73 Faith-Based Organisations Warn of Impending Nuclear Disaster

By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - As the month-long review Church of Christ, Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Pax Christi nuclear power is spending “lavishly to upgrade its conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty USA and United Religions Initiative. atomic arsenal.” (NPT) continued into its second week, a coalition of SGI, one of the relentless advocates of nuclear Russia’s defence budget has increased by over 50 some 50 faith-based organisations (FBOs), anti-nuclear disarmament, was involved in three international percent since 2007, a third of it earmarked for nuclear peace activists and civil society organisations (CSOs) conferences on the Humanitarian Impact of Nuclear weapons: twice the share of France. was assigned an unenviable task: a brief three-minute Weapons (in Oslo, Norway in March 2013; Nayarit, China is investing in submarines and mobile missile presentation warning the world of the disastrous Mexico in February 2014; and Vienna, Austria, Decem- batteries while the United States is seeking Congressio- humanitarian consequences of a nuclear attack. ber 2014), and also participated in two inter-faith nal approval for 350 billion dollars for the modernisa- Accomplishing this feat within a rigid time frame, Dr. dialogues on nuclear disarmament (in Washington DC, tion of its nuclear arsenal. Emily Welty of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and Vienna over the last two years). The world’s five major nuclear powers are the United did not mince her words. At both meetings, inter-faith leaders jointly called for States, Britain, France, China and Russia – and the Speaking on behalf of the coalition, she told delegates: the abolition of all nuclear weapons. non-declared nuclear powers include India, Pakistan, “We raise our voices in the name of sanity and the The current NPT review conference, which began Apr. Israel and North Korea. shared values of humanity. We reject the immorality of 27, is scheduled to conclude May 22, perhaps with an The coalition pledged to: communicate within respec- holding whole populations hostage, threatened with a “outcome document” – if it is adopted by consensus. tive faith communities the inhumane and immoral cruel and miserable death.” The review conference also marks the 70th anniver- nature of nuclear weapons and the unacceptable risks And she urged the world’s political leaders to muster sary of the U.S. nuclear attack on the Japanese cities of they pose, working within and among respective faith the courage needed to break the deepening spirals of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II. traditions to raise awareness of the moral imperative to mistrust that undermine the viability of human societ- Since August 1945, when both cities were subjected to abolish nuclear weapons; and continue to support ies and threaten humanity’s shared future. atomic attacks, Dr Welty told delegates, the continued international efforts to ban nuclear weapons on She said nuclear weapons are incompatible with the existence of nuclear weapons has forced humankind to humanitarian grounds and call for the early commence- values upheld by respective religious traditions – the live in the shadow of apocalyptic destruction. ment of negotiations by states on a new legal instru- right of people to live in security and dignity; the “Their use would not only destroy the past fruits of ment to prohibit nuclear weapons in a forum open to commands of conscience and justice; the duty to human civilization, it would disfigure the present and all states and blockable by none. protect the vulnerable and to exercise the stewardship consign future generations to a grim fate.” The coalition also called on the world’s governments that will safeguard the planet for future generations. For decades, the coalition of FBOs said, the obligation to: heed the voices of the world’s hibakusha (atomic “Nuclear weapons manifest a total disregard for all and responsibility of all states to eliminate these bomb survivors) urging the abolition of nuclear weap- these values and commitments,” she declared, warning weapons of mass destruction has been embodied in ons, whose suffering must never be visited on any there is no countervailing imperative – whether of Article VI of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of other individual, family or society; take to heart the national security, stability in international power Nuclear Weapons (NPT). realities clarified by successive international confer- relations, or the difficulty of overcoming political inertia But progress toward the fulfillment of this repeatedly ences on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons; – that justifies their continued existence, much less affirmed commitment has been too slow – and today take concrete action leading to the complete elimina- their use. almost imperceptible. tion of nuclear weapons, consistent with existing Led by Peter Prove, director, Commission of the Instead, ongoing modernisation programmes of the obligations under the NPT; and associate themselves Churches on International Affairs, World Council of world’s nuclear arsenals is diverting vast resources from with the pledge delivered at the Vienna Conference and Churches, Susi Snyder, Nuclear Disarmament Pro- limited government budgets when public finances are pursue effective measures to fill the legal gap for the gramme Manager PAX and Hirotsugu Terasaki, execu- hard-pressed to meet the needs of human security. prohibition and elimination of nuclear weapons. tive director of Peace Affairs, Soka Gakkai International “This situation is unacceptable and cannot be permit- (IPS | 7 May 2015) (SGI), the coalition also included Global Security ted to continue,” the coalition said. Photo: Dr. Emily Welty from WCC delivers the interfaith Institute, Islamic Society of North America, United The London Economist pointed out recently that every joint statement at the NPT Review Conference. Credit: Kimiaki Kawai | SGI - JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 74 TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 75 Q&A: Comprehensive Ban on Nuclear Testing, a ‘Stepping Stone’ to a Nuke-Free World Kanya D’Almeida interviews and frustrations are running equally high, as a binding creating a safer world. Lassina Zerbo political agreement on the biggest threat to humanity One of these bodies is the Vienna-based Comprehen- hangs in the balance. sive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation(CTBTO), Executive Secretary of the Comprehensive Nuclear- Behind the headlines that focus primarily on power founded in 1996 alongside the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) struggles between the five major nuclear powers – the Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT), with the aim of UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - With the four-week-long United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – scores independently monitoring compliance. review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation of organisations refusing to be bogged down in geopo- With 183 signatories and 164 ratifications, the treaty Treaty (NPT) underway at the United Nations, hopes litical squabbles are going about the Herculean task of represents a milestone in international efforts to ban

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 76 nuclear testing. ask why nuclear weapons states are allowed to develop have bilateral relations. In order to be legally binding, however, the treaty more modern weapons, while other states are pre- Having said this, if I’m invited to North Korea for a needs the support of the 44 so-called ‘Annex 2 States’, vented from developing even the basic technologies meeting that could serve as a basis for engaging in eight of which have so far refused to ratify the agree- that could serve as nuclear weapons. discussions, to help them understand more about the ment: China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, India, Pakistan, North The CTBT represents something that all states can CTBT and the organizational framework and infrastruc- Korea and the United States. agree to; it serves as the basis for consensus on other, ture that we’ve built: why not? I would be ready to do This holdout has severely crippled efforts to move more difficult issues, and this is the message I am it. towards even the most basic goal of the nuclear bringing to the conference. We are also engaging states like Israel, who could take abolition process. Q: What have been some of the biggest achievement leadership in regions like the Middle East by signing Still, the CTBTO has made tremendous strides in the of the CTBTO? What are some of your most pressing onto the CTBT. I was just in Israel, where I asked the past 20 years to set the stage for full ratification. concerns for the future? questions: Do you want to test? I don’t think so. Do you Its massive global network of seismic, hydroacoustic, A: The CTBTO bans all nuclear test explosions under- need it? I don’t think so. So why don’t you take leader- infrasound and radionuclide detecting stations makes it water, underground and in the air. We’ve built a ship to open that framework that we need for confi- nearly impossible for governments to violate the terms network of nearly 300 stations for detecting nuclear dence building in the region that could lead to more of the treaty, and the rich data generated from its tests, including tracking radioactive emissions. ratification and more consideration of a nuclear many facilities is contributing to a range of scientific Our international monitoring system has stopped weapons-free zone or a WMD-free zone. endeavors worldwide. horizontal proliferation (more countries acquiring Israel now says that CTBT ratification is not an “if” but In an interview with IPS, CTBTO Executive Secretary nuclear weapons), as well as vertical proliferation a “when” – I hope the “when” is not too far away. Dr. Lassina Zerbo spoke about the organisation’s hopes (more advanced weapons systems). Q: Despite scores of marches, thousands of petitions for the review conference, and shared some insights on That’s why some [states] are hesitant to consider and millions of signatures calling for disarmament the primary hurdles standing in the way of a nuclear- ratification of the CTBT: because they are of the view and abolition, the major nuclear weapons states are free world. that they still need testing to be able to maintain or holding out. This can be extremely disheartening for Excerpts from the interview follow. modernise their stockpiles. those at the forefront of the movement. What would Q: What role will the CTBTO play in the conference? Any development of nuclear weapons happening be your message to global civil society? A: Our hope is that the next four weeks result in a today is based on testing that was done 20-25 years A: I would say, keep putting pressure on your political positive outcome with regards to disarmament and ago. No country, except for North Korea, has per- leaders. We need leadership to move on these issues. non-proliferation, and we think the CTBT plays an formed a single test in the 21st century. Right now 90 percent of the world is saying “no” to important role there. The treaty was one of the key Q: How do you deal with outliers like North Korea? nuclear testing, yet we are held hostage by the handful elements that led to indefinite extension of the NPT A: We haven’t had official contact with North Korea. I of countries [that have not ratified the treaty]. itself, and is the one thing that seems to be bringing all can only base my analysis on what world leaders are Only civil society can play a role in telling govern- the state parties together. It’s a low-hanging fruit and telling me. [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov has ments, “You’ve got to move because the majority of we need to catch it, make it serve as a stepping-stone attempted to engage North Korea in discussions about the world is saying ‘no’ to what you still have, and what for whatever we want to achieve in this review confer- the CTBT and asked if they would consider a morato- you are still holding onto.” The CTBT is a key element ence. rium on testing. Yesterday I met Yerzhan Ashikbayev, for that goal we want to achieve, hopefully in our For instance, we need to find a compromise between deputy foreign minister for Kazakhstan, which has lifetime: a world free of nuclear weapons. those who are of the view that we should move first on bilateral relations with North Korea, and they have (IPS | 29 April 2015) non-proliferation, and between those who say we urgently called on North Korea to consider signature of Photo: Gamma spectroscopy can detect traces of should move equally, if not faster, on disarmament. the CTBT. radioactivity from nuclear tests from the air. We also need to address the concerns of those who Those are the countries that can help us, those who Credit: CTBTO Official Photostream/CC-BY-2.0

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 77 Nuclear Testing Legacy Haunts Pacific Island Countries

By Shailendra Singh* The Pacific’s absence from a major event such as the French Polynesians were similarly treated by the NPT is another apparent sign of the overall decline of French Government, which conducted 193 atmospheric SUVA, Fiji (IDN) - Prominent Pacific Island anti-nuclear anti-nuclear advocacy in the region, which some see as and underground nuclear tests at Moruroa and Fan- campaigners want a revival of their once-robust a worrying trend that needs to be arrested. gataufa atolls. The ICAN publication relates the case of movement to support the international effort against Stanley Simpson, formerly the assistant director of the a local Maohi (Polynesian) worker at the testing centre ‘nuclearism’. Their call coincides with a major interna- now non-operational Fiji-based regional pressure after an atmospheric test in September 1966 on tional meeting at the United Nations in New York – the group, Pacific Concerns Resource Centre, told IDN that Moruroa. The worker was among those instructed to 2015 Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on ‘nuclearism’ is still a threat, even if it might appear clean up all the debris that littered the roads. The the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) from dormant. worker stated that the supervisors told them: ‘It’s OK, April 27 to May 22, 2015. “The danger is not over,” insists Simpson. “We still live you can go over there.’ The NPT is a landmark international treaty whose with the legacy of nuclear testing and activity.” Nuclear According to David Robie, a journalism professor at objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons testing in the Pacific began in 1946 and ended in 1996, the AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand, the and weapons technology while promoting co-operation with the former colonial powers – United States, Britain Pacific anti-nuclear movement grew out of a sense of in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. and France– collectively conducting more than 300 outrage that countries like Britain, France and the However, besides Palau, there were no Pacific island detonations in the region. United States were using vulnerable Pacific island countries represented in the 148 States parties that Nearly 70 years on, the continued refusal of the territories as pawns to carry out tests that they were participated in one or more of the annual preparatory concerned powers to own up to their past transgres- not willing to carry out in their own backyard. meetings held in the lead up to the 2015 NPT. sions and compensate victims deepens the sense of Robie, who covered anti-nuclear issues as an indepen- This is despite the Pacific region’s immense contribu- injustice felt in the region. dent jourmalist, authored a book in 1986, Eyes of Fire, tion to the nuclear disarmament movement, as In February this year, the Fiji Government pledged about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by French recorded by the International Campaign to Abolish financial assistance to 24 surviving Fijian soldiers who state terrorists in 1985. “The arrogance of the North Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). At the height of the U.S.- were on Christmas Island (now Kiribati) during British really upset a lot of people in the Pacific,” Robie told Soviet arms race, members of the South Pacific Forum nuclear tests in the late 1950s. Fijian Prime Minister IDN. “Newly emerging countries like Vanuatu, led by signed and ratified the South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone Frank Bainimarama said, "We owe it to these men to the late Walter Lini (Prime Minister of Vanuatu) and Treaty (SPNFZ). Moreover, Pacific governments have help them now, not wait for the British politicians and political leaders like Oscar Temaru, then mayor of the traditionally voted in favour of resolutions calling for a bureaucrats. We need to erase this blight on our Pape’ete suburb of Fa’aa, declared themselves global treaty banning nuclear weapons at the UN and at history.” “nuclear-free” to make a statement of independence.” various international disarmament summits. A recent article by the President of the Marshall After Pacific-wide protests forced a halt to French This latest NPT review conference will consider ways Islands, Christopher J. Loeak, outlines the callous nuclear tests in 1996, the civil society groups at heart of to promote engagement with civil society in strength- manner in which his country was treated by the United the anti-nuclear movement either scaled down or ening NPT norms and in promoting disarmament States. The article appeared in the 2014 publication, closed their operations. Some turned their attention to education. Yet, participation by Pacific Islands-based Banning Nuclear Weapons: A Pacific perspective, what became regarded as immediate hazards, such as civil society organisations in the conference will be published by the International Campaign to Abolish global warming. scant. Nuclear Weapons (ICAN). Loeak points out that besides Robie states that while France was conducting nuclear According to Emele Duituturaga, the head of the the “Bravo” test, which was 1,000 times more powerful tests in the Pacific, there was still a big “power ogre” to Pacific Islands Association of Civil Society Organisations than the Hiroshima bomb, 17 other tests in the Mar- focus attention on. Once the end of these tests were (PIANGO), none of their national liaison units are shall Islands were in the megaton range. The total yield achieved, other issues took precedence. “In the 1980s, represented at the 2015 NPT. Neither is Duituturaga of the tests in the Marshalls comprised nearly 80 per the buzzword was nuclear refugees. Now it is climate aware of any other NGOs that will represent the region cent of the atmospheric total detonated by the United change refugees,” says Robie. at the conference. States.

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 78 The Fiji anti-Nuclear group (FANG), which was at the frontline of the anti-nuclear movement in the 1980s, is no longer active. The group opposed both French testing in Tahiti and the Fiji government’s policy on allowing nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed ships into the country. The Suva-based Pacific Concerns Resource Center (PCRC), which acted as the secretariat for the Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific (NFIP) move- ment, has since closed operations. PIANGO’s Duituturaga states that with the closure of the PCRC, the nuclear issue “went off the radar”. Asked if the nuclear danger was over for the Pacific, Duitu- turaga replied: “No – of course not. Nuclear arms are destructive to all of us – whether or not we are directly involved.” Robie too feels that the Pacific remains exposed. Specific threats include the persistent radioactive contamination from the tests; the issue of newer fallout from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan; and the China-U.S. rivalry, especially with speculation about China’s eventual plans for Taiwan, which raises the specter of nuclear conflict. According to Simpson, it behoves the Pacific to be part of the disarmament movement. “Nuclear testing is an emotional issue for Pacific Islanders. Pacific people can strengthen the movement’s heart and soul,” states Simpson. Unfortunately, the Pacific will presence is unlikely to be felt at the 2015 NPT, which will consider a number of crucial issues, such as nuclear disarmament, and the promotion and strengthening of safeguards. *Shailendra Singh is Coordinator and Senior Lecturer in Journalism at the School of Language, Arts & Media, Faculty of Arts, Law & Education at the University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. The views in the story are not necessarily shared by the USP, where the writer is employed. [IDN-InDepthNews – 17 April 2015] Image credit: www.academia.edu

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 79 No Signs Yet Of Mass Destruction Weapon-Free Middle East

By Ramesh Jaura measures, intended to be pursued in parallel, rallied tary General to convene a regional conference to broad international support but practical progress has discuss the issue in 2012. BERLIN (IDN) – In run-up to the four-week-long quin- since been elusive. Other measures agreed included the appointment of a quennial review of the landmark Nuclear Non- In fact, on November 23, the U.S. issued a statement WMDFZ facilitator as well as designation of a govern- Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the goal of a Middle East postponing the December 2012 conference. The ment that will host the conference. State parties will free of the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and conference has not yet been rescheduled, and the take up the question of the implementation of these their means of delivery remains a distant dream. And so co-conveners have been offering different opinions as steps at the subsequent NPT Review Conference in does the Helsinki Conference that should have been to when it should be held, and the reasons for the 2015. As the Lübeck communiqué implies, it is unlikely convened in December 2012. delay. to happen. All indications are that also the Foreign Ministers of The U.S. statement cited "present conditions in the Nevertheless, the Foreign Ministers of G7 countries, the Group of Seven (G7) influential countries of the Middle East" and the lack of agreement by participating which include three permanent members of the UN world – Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, states on "acceptable conditions" for the December Security Council – France, Great Britain and the U.S. – Japan, and the United States – do not see a silver lining conference. No timeline for rescheduling was included. say they are “committed to seeking a safer world for all on the horizon. They met ahead of G7 summit June 7-8. In a November 24 statement, Russia called for the and to creating the conditions for a world without In a communiqué on April 15, they “commend the conference to be held before April 2013, citing that the nuclear weapons in a way that promotes international ongoing efforts of the Facilitator and co-sponsors of the preparations had already reached an "advanced stage" stability and stresses the vital importance of non- 1995 Resolution (the Russian Federation, the United and that the reason for postponement was that not all proliferation for achieving this goal”. Kingdom and the United States), particularly the five states in the region agreed to participate in the confer- They add: “Preventing the spread of weapons of mass rounds of consultations held among the regional ence. destruction (WMD) and their means of delivery remains States.” At the time of the announcement, conference facilita- a top priority, since such proliferation poses a major But they “regret that, despite these efforts, it has thus tor Jaakko Laajava, a Finnish diplomat had not yet threat to international peace and security. The fact that far not been possible to convene the Helsinki Confer- secured Israel's attendance. While Iran announced that the uncontrolled proliferation of conventional arms is ence”. it would attend on November 7, it also said it would not undermining stability in certain regions of the globe is a The statement issued at their meeting in the northern engage with the Israelis at the conference, and some strong reason for the G7 to take action in this field as German port city of Lübeck adds: “The regional parties experts believe Iran only announced it would attend well.” must engage actively with each other in order to reach because Tehran knew that the December 2012 meeting Regarding the upcoming ninth NPT Review Confer- consensus on a date and an agenda for the Helsinki would not take place. ence, which will be held 45 years after the NPT’s entry Conference as soon as possible. We emphasise that the In protest of the postponement of the much awaited into force and 70 years after the atomic bombings in Conference can only lead to a meaningful process if the Helsinki conference, Egypt walked out of a NPT Prepa- Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of World War II, interests of all participants are taken into account.” ratory Committee Meeting in Geneva on April 29, 2013, the G7 “reaffirm” their “unconditional support for all The 1995 Resolution emerged from the NPT Review and called for it to be rescheduled as soon as possible. three mutually reinforcing pillars of the NPT” – disar- Conference, which called for “the establishment of an As the U.S.-based Arms Control Association points out mament, nonproliferation, and peaceful uses of nuclear effectively verifiable Middle East zone free of weapons in a fact sheet, at the 2010 NPT Review Conference, energy. of mass destruction, nuclear, chemical and biological, state parties were able to agree for the first time to five G7 Foreign Ministers point out: “The NPT remains the and their delivery systems”. practical steps to make progress towards implementing cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation regime The NPT entered into force in 1970, and 190 states the 1995 NPT Review Conference Middle East resolu- and the essential foundation for the pursuit of nuclear have subscribed. tion. disarmament in accordance with Article VI and the The proposal of a Weapons of Mass Destruction-Free The United States, Russia and the United Kingdom, the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. The NPT makes a vital Zone (WMDFZ) was first tabled by Egypt in 1990. It was treaty depository powers and sponsors of that Resolu- and enduring contribution to making the world a safer based on longstanding calls to establish a Nuclear tion, committed to work together with the UN Secre place. It benefits its members on a daily basis.” Weapons-Free Zone (NWFZ) in the Middle East. Both [IDN-InDepthNews – 15 April 2015] - JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 80 Opinion: Shared Action for a Nuclear Weapon Free World

By Daisaku Ikeda* unanimously expressed their concern about the and that it will help foster a greater solidarity among catastrophic humanitarian consequences of the use of the world’s youth in support of a treaty to prohibit TOKYO (IPS) - From the end of April, the Nuclear nuclear weapons at the 2010 Review Conference, I these weapons. Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference will hope that each head of government or national At the Vienna Conference in December, the govern- be held in New York. In this year that marks the seventi- delegation will take the opportunity of this year’s ment of Austria issued a pledge to cooperate with all eth anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima conference to introduce their respective plans of action relevant stakeholders in order to realise the goal of a and Nagasaki, I add my voice to those urging substantial to prevent such consequences. nuclear-weapon-free world. commitments and real progress toward the realisation Finally, building upon the “unequivocal undertaking by In the same spirit, together with the representatives of of a world without nuclear weapons. the nuclear-weapon States to accomplish the total other faith-based organisations, the SGI last year In recent years, there has been an important shift in elimination of their nuclear arsenals leading to nuclear organised interfaith panels in Washington D.C. and the debate surrounding nuclear weapons. This can be disarmament,” reaffirmed at the 2000 Review Confer- Vienna which issued Joint Statements expressing the seen in the fact that, in October of last year, more than ence, I propose that an “NPT disarmament commis- participants’ pledge to work together for a world free 80 percent of the member states of the United Nations sion” be established as a subsidiary organ to the NPT to of nuclear weapons. lent their support to a joint statement on the humani- ensure the prompt and concrete fulfilment of this The future is determined by the depth and intensity of tarian consequences of nuclear weapons, in this way commitment. the pledge made by people living in the present expressing their shared desire that nuclear weapons The second initiative I would like to propose concerns moment. The key to bringing the history of nuclear never be used – under any circumstances. the creation of a platform for negotiations for a legal weapons to a close lies in ensuring that all actors – Meanwhile, the Third Conference on the Humanitar- instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons: states, international organisations and civil society – ian Impact of Nuclear Weapons held in Vienna, Austria, Creation of such a platform should be based on a take shared action, working with like-minded partners in December, marked the first time that nuclear- careful evaluation of the outcome of this year’s NPT while holding fast to a deep commitment to a world weapon states – the United States and the United Review Conference, and it could draw on the 2013 free of nuclear weapons. Kingdom – participated, acknowledging the existence of General Assembly resolution calling for a United (IPS | 9 April 2015) a complex debate on this question. Nations high-level international conference on nuclear *Daisaku Ikeda is a Japanese Buddhist philosopher and In order to break out of the current deadlock, I believe disarmament to be convened no later than 2018. This peace-builder, and president of the Soka Gakkai we need to refocus on the fundamental inhumanity of conference could be held in 2016 to begin the process International (SGI) grassroots Buddhist movement nuclear weapons in the full breadth of their impacts. of drafting a new treaty. (www.sgi.org) Taking this as our point of departure, we must formu- I strongly hope that Japan will work with other late measures to ensure that no country or people ever countries and with civil society to accelerate the suffer the kind of irreparable damage that nuclear process of eliminating nuclear weapons from our world. weapons would wreak. In August of this year, the United Nations Conference Here, I would like to propose two specific initiatives. on Disarmament Issues will be held in Hiroshima; the One is to develop a new NPT-centred institutional World Nuclear Victims’ Forum will take place in Novem- framework – a commission dedicated to nuclear ber, also in Hiroshima; and the annual Pugwash confer- disarmament: ence will be held in Nagasaki in November. I urge the heads of government of as many states as Planning is also under way for a World Youth Summit possible to attend the NPT Review Conference this for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons to be held in year, and that they participate in a forum where the Hiroshima at the end of August as a joint initiative by findings of the international conferences on the the Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and other groups. I humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons are shared. hope that the summit will adopt a youth declaration Then, in light of the fact that all parties to the NPT pledging to bring the era of nuclear weapons to an end,

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 81 U.N. Warns of Growing Divide Between Nuclear Haves and Have-Nots

By Thalif Deen UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - As she prepared to leave office after more than three years, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane painted a dismal picture of a conflicted world: it is “not the best of times for disarmament.” The warning comes against the backdrop of a new Cold War on the nuclear horizon and spreading military conflicts in the politically–volatile Middle East, including in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. “The prospects for further nuclear arms reductions are dim and we may even be witnessing a roll-back of the hard-won disarmament gains of the last 25 years,” she told the Disarmament Commission last week. In one of her final speeches before the world body, the outgoing U.N. under-secretary-general said, “I have never seen a wider divide between nuclear-haves and nuclear have-nots over the scale and pace of nuclear disarmament.” Kane’s warning is a realistic assessment of the current impasse – even as bilateral nuclear arms reductions between the United States and Russia have virtually ground to a standstill, according to anti-nuclear activ- ists. There are signs even of reversal of gains already made, (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) Review Conference, or at least indefinitely suspended?” for example, with respect to the longstanding U.S.- a proposed international conference on a zone free of Not necessarily, he said. Russian Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty. weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in the Middle East The tensions – with nuclear dimensions – arising out No multilateral negotiations on reduction and elimina- never got off the ground. of the Ukraine crisis may yet spark some sober rethink- tion of nuclear arsenals are in sight, and all arsenals are John Burroughs, executive director of the Lawyers ing of current trends, said Burroughs, who is also being modernised over the next decades. Committee on Nuclear Policy (LNCP), told IPS: “As the director of the U.N. Office of the International Associa- And contrary to the promise made by the 2010 NPT world heads into the NPT Review Conference, Apr. tion of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms (IALANA). 27-May 22, is nuclear disarmament therefore doomed After all, he pointed out, the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 82 served to stimulate subsequent agreements, among over 4,000 on deployed status and the promise by the supported by a clear majority of states – as illustrated them the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, the 1967 Outer two main nuclear weapon states to reduce their by the 155 states that supported New Zealand’s Space Treaty, the 1967 Treaty of Tlatelolco establishing deployed arsenals by 30 percent to 1550 each within statement in the First Committee – has continued to the Latin American nuclear weapons free zone, the seven years of the new START entering into force.” gather momentum, Kane told delegates. 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and the 1972 Another NPT nuclear weapon state, the UK is on the “This is not a distraction from the so-called ‘realist’ US-Russian strategic arms limitation agreement and verge of renewing its Trident nuclear weapon pro- politics of nuclear disarmament. Rather, it is an Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. gramme, he pointed out. approach that seeks to underscore the devastating Jayantha Dhanapala, former U.N. under-secretary- Turning to the issue of conventional weapons, Kane human impact of nuclear weapons and ground them in general for disarmament affairs, said the “Thirteen said: “We are flooded daily with images of the brutal international humanitarian law,” she said. Steps” agreed upon at the 2000 NPT Review Confer- and internecine regional conflicts bedevilling the globe “This movement is supported by almost 80 percent of ence and the 64-point Action Programme, together – conflicts fuelled by unregulated and illegal arms U.N. member states. The numbers cannot be ignored.” with the agreement on the Middle East WMD Free flows.” One of the international community’s major achieve- Zone proposal and the conceptual breakthrough on It is estimated that more than 740,000 men, women, ments in the last year has been to bring the Arms Trade recognising the humanitarian consequences of the use and children die each year as a result of armed vio- Treaty into force only a year and a half after it was of nuclear weapons, augured well for the strengthened lence. negotiated. review process. “However, in the midst of these dark clouds, I have This truly historic treaty will play a critical role in “And yet the report cards meticulously maintained by seen some genuine bright spots during my tenure as ensuring that all actors involved in the arms trade must civil society on actual achievements, the return to Cold high representative,” Kane said. be held accountable and must be expected to comply War mindsets by the U.S. and Russia and the negative The bitter conflict in Syria will not, in the words of the with internationally agreed standards, Kane said. record of all the nuclear weapon states have converted secretary-general, be brought to a close without an This is possible, she pointed out, by ensuring that their the goal of a nuclear weapon free world into a mirage,” inclusive and Syrian-led political process, but Syria’s arms exports are not going to be used to violate arms he added. accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention, embargoes or to fuel conflict and by exercising better Unless the upcoming NPT Review Conference reverses facilitated by the Framework for the Elimination of control over arms and ammunition imports in order to these ominous trends, the 2015 Conference is doomed Syrian Chemical Weapons agreed upon between the prevent diversion or re-transfers to unauthorised users. to fail, imperiling the future of the NPT, Dhanapala Russian Federation and the United States of America, “To my mind, these achievements all highlight the warned. has been one positive outcome from this bloody possibility of achieving breakthroughs in disarmament A stocktaking exercise is relevant, he added. conflict, she added. and non-proliferation even in the most trying of In 1995, he said, “We had five nuclear weapon states “We have seen the complete removal of all declared international climates,” Kane declared. and one outside the NPT. Today, we have nine nuclear chemicals from Syria and the commencement of a (IPS | 13 April 2015) weapon armed states – four of them outside the NPT. process to destroy all of Syria’s chemical weapons Photo: Angela Kane, UN High Representative for “In 1970, when the NPT entered into force, we had a production facilities.” Disarmament Affairs, addresses the 2013 session of the total of 38,153 nuclear warheads. Today, over four Emerging from the so-called ‘disarmament malaise’, Conference on Disarmament. decades later, we have 16,300 – just 21,853 less – with the humanitarian approach to nuclear disarmament, Credit: UN Photo / Jean-Marc Ferré

TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 83 Mixed Middle East Reaction to Iran Nuclear Deal

By Mel Fryberg ment at Israel’s Ben Gurion University and an expert on trying to build a decisive retaliatory capacity or it is Iran, challenged that assessment, stating that the claim trying to expand its influence out of its borders through RAMALLAH (IDN) – Regional reactions to the April 2 that Iran presented an existential threat was a fig leaf nuclear blackmail.” framework agreement on Iran’s nuclear programme for Israel’s occupation. The article went on to point out regional polarisation, have been mixed both in Israel and its Arab neighbour- Ram said that for years Israel argued that peace with citing the disintegration of Yemen as an example where hood. Vested interests including geopolitical ambitions, the Arabs was impossible and when that bogeyman the Iranians have supported the Houthis. Further economic competition, religious ideology, personal turned out to be false they looked for a new one – Iran. examples of Iranian interference include Iraq, Afghani- political ambition, and strategic alliances have all played “Basically, since 1996 they have warned us that in a stan, Lebanon, Syria and Bahrain. their part in this mixed reaction. year, Iran will have a nuclear weapon,” said Ram in an “The problem here is that Iran – without a nuclear As one of the chief antagonists to any deal reached interview with the left-leaning Israeli daily‘Haaretz.’ bomb, but free of sanctions and of any serious restric- between the P5 +1 – five permanent members of the “Let’s assume they are on the way. Are they intending tions on its ballistic capabilities – will still be more UN Security Council, namely China, France, Russia, the to use nuclear capabilities to destroy Israel? aggressive in the regional theatre,” said MEB. United Kingdom, and the United States, plus Germany – “In my opinion, the answer is a sweeping and Sunni Saudi Arabia, whose military is fighting against and Iran, the predictable reaction of Israeli Prime unequivocal no. Most historians of the Islamic Republic the Houthis in Yemen, is also wary of its Shi’ite adver- Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the agreement has of Iran since 1979 point out that Iranian policy is not sary and the deal reached with Iran, believing that been one described by Israeli critics as “hysterical” and dictated by messianic or religious considerations but Iranian influence flourishes on weak central govern- “right-wing reactionary”. rather pragmatic ones based on state interests,” said ments and sectarian instability. Days before the framework agreement was reached, Ram. The Saudi cabinet released a conciliatory public Netanyahu continued to try and pressure the US “To say Iran poses an existential threat to Israel is statement in regard to the Iran deal but simultaneously administration to back out of any accord, claiming that wrong, if not a deception. Israel has bigger and more called for “commitment to the principles of good Iran represented an existential threat to Israel, while dangerous enemies. Iran serves as a fig leaf to the real neighbourliness and non-interference in the internal simultaneously dredging up the Holocaust. danger to Israel’s fate – the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” affairs of the Arab countries and respect of their Once the deal was done, much of Israel’s extreme The Israeli government was not the only one in the sovereignty” even though the Saudis and Iran are right-wing cabinet was in agreement that US President region voicing concerns about Iran’s regional political backing opposing sides in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Barack Obama had thrown Israel under the bus – as if ambitions. Nasser Ahmed Bin Ghaib, a researcher from the the central issue of the agreement reached was Israel. United Arab Emirates (UAE), told ‘Al Jazeera’the Gulf Netanyahu, convinced of a higher calling, tried Strange bedfellows States with their struggling economies are worried unsuccessfully to force Obama into obtaining an Indeed, Israel has found strange bedfellows in a about economic competition, with the possibility of agreement from Iran that recognition of Israel’s right to number of Arab governments who have also voiced cheap Iranian oil flooding a saturated oil market and exist was a prerequisite for any nuclear deal. scepticism over the agreement. further lowering prices, following Western acceptance Israeli commentator Alex Fishman voiced what many Samir Altaqi and Esam Aziz from the Middle East of Iran. Israelis feel in Israel’s right-leaning ‘YnetNews’ website. Briefing (MEB), a research and risk advisory company, However, there are also mixed reactions to the Iran “Our friends in Washington have sold us out, along believe the Arabs have reasons to question Iran’s deal in the Gulf. with their other allies in the Middle East, for a pit- motives. In an article, ‘What to Expect From the Arabs “Those who support a deal argue it would prevent the tance”, was how he summed up the deal. After the Iran Nuclear Deal’, MEB said: “The Region’s region from sliding into a destructive nuclear arms race Fishman argued that the interim agreement was leaders do not reject a nuclear deal with Iran as a that would deplete everybody. But others say the deal evidence of the strategic importance Iran attributes to matter of principle, but they see the whole issue of will have a number of negative consequences for the its military nuclear programme. Tehran’s nuclear programme from a different perspec- Gulf,” Bin Ghaib told ‘Al Jazeera.’ However, not all Israelis concur with their govern- tive from that of Washington.” Egyptian political analyst Ahmed Abd-Rabo told ment. “They understand that for any country to seek a Egyptian daily‘Al Ahram’ he believes sectarianism in Prof Haggai Ram, head of Middle East Studies Depart nuclear weapon means one of two things: either it is

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 84 the Middle East seems the most likely outcome as the plicit in NATO’s defence shield in 2011. Most Iranians are elated at the prospect of rejoining feud between Sunnis and Shias deepens. “However, playing out behind the shadow of Iran's the international community as a respected member, “This follows anxiety in the Saudi-led Sunni camp nuclear programme was Turkey's strategy of securing except of course for Iranian hardliners who believe the following the conclusion of the framework agreement an eventual Iranian contribution to the European Iranian leadership has been too accommodating with between Iran, the leader of the Shia camp, and the Union's Southern Gas Corridor – first, in the form of the American “Great Satan”. West,” said Abd-Rabo. Nabucco, and after it was discarded, the Trans- [IDN-InDepthNews – 8 April 2015] Turkey for its part is also divided over the Iran ques- Anatolian Natural Gas Pipeline (TANAP) project,” Photo: The ministers of foreign affairs of France, tion. Akin Unver, assistant professor of international explained Unver. Germany, the European Union, Iran, the United relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, says So despite being disappointed about being sidelined Kingdom and the United States as well as Chinese and Turkey’s Iran policy shifted in the wake of the Arab diplomatically during negotiations with Iran, Turkey Russian diplomats announcing the framework of a Spring. could still reap some benefits from Iran in the form of Comprehensive agreement on the Iranian nuclear Afraid of Iran’s regional ambitions Turkey was com Iran being connected to the Southern Gas Corridor. programme (Lausanne, 2 April 2015). Credit: Wikimedia Commons TOWARD A WORLD WITHOUT NUCLEAR WEAPONS - PAGE 85 Obama Prepares for Showdown with Congress Over Iran Deal

By Jasmin Ramsey WASHINGTON (IPS) - Two days after the deadline for reaching a deal over Iran’s nuclear programme had passed, negotiators looked like they would be going home empty handed. But a surprisingly detailed framework was announced Apr. 2 in Lausanne, Switzer- land, as well as in Washington, and in the same breath, U.S. President Barack Obama acknowledged the battle he faces on Capitol Hill. The issues at stake here are bigger than politics,” said Obama on the White House lawn after announcing the “historic understanding with Iran,” which, “if fully implemented will prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon.” “If Congress kills this deal – not based on expert analysis, and without offering any reasonable alterna- tive – then it’s the United States that will be blamed for the failure of diplomacy,” he said. “International unity will collapse, and the path to conflict will widen.” Negotiators from Iran and the P5+1 countries (U.S., U.K., France, China, Russia plus Germany) have until Jun. 30 to produce a comprehensive final accord on Iran’s controversial nuclear programme. That gives Congress just under three months to embrace a “constructive oversight role”, as the president said he hoped it would. “Congress has played a couple of roles in these negotiations,” Laicie Heeley, policy director at the Washington-based Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told IPS. “I think some folks would like to think they are playing a bad cop role, but I’m not sure how effective they’ve been…it’s a dangerous game to play.”

- JOINT MEDIA PROJECT REPORT 2016 - PAGE 86 If negotiators had gone home empty handed, hawkish that essentially undercuts our ability to get the deal “The parameters of the nuclear deal that have measures, like the Kirk-Menendez sponsoredIran done,” said the official. emerged look like we are headed toward a seriously Nuclear Weapon Free Act of 2013, which proposes The idea that Congress should have a say on any deal flawed one,” wrote FDD’s Mark Dubowitz and Annie additional sanctions and the dismantling of all of Iran’s became especially popular after a preliminary accord Fixler in an article on the Quartz website entitled enrichment capabilities – a non-starter for the Iranians was reached in Geneva two years ago, clearing the path ‘Obama’s Nuclear Deal With Iran Puts the World’s – would have had a better chance of acquiring enough for a host of congressional measures particularly from Safety at Risk’. votes for a veto-proof majority. the right. But now that a final deal is in the works, The Israeli prime minister, who received numerous But now that a final deal is on the horizon, Republi- hawks will have a harder time acquiring essential standing ovations when he addressed Congress on Iran cans will have a much harder time convincing enough support from Democrats. in March – even after the White House made its Democrats to sign on to potentially deal-damaging bills. “Before yesterday Senator Corker was fairly certain he opposition to his visit crystal clear – meanwhile called With the Kirk-Menendez bill out of the way, the most could get a veto-proof majority, but now that there’s a the framework deal “a grave danger” that would immediate threat Obama faces now comes from the good deal on the table he’s going to have a lot of “threaten the very survival” of Israel. Iran Nuclear Agreement Review Act of 2015 proposed trouble getting votes from enough Democrats,” said Both Israel, and to a lesser degree Saudi Arabia, have by the Republican chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Heeley, who closely monitors Capitol Hill. made their opposition to the negotiations with Iran Committee, Senator Bob Corker. Statements from key democrats yesterday retained clear, and are expected to voice their concerns loudly The Corker bill gives the final say to a Republican- what has become customary skepticism, but some are over the next few months. majority Congress – which has consistently criticised already hinting that they are gearing up to support the But the Obama administration’s efforts can’t be solely the president’s handling of the negotiations – granting administration’s position. devoted to convincing allies or fighting a home front it 60 days to vote on any comprehensive nuclear Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on his battle—it must also nail down the details of the final agreement with Iran immediately after it’s reached. colleagues to “take a deep breath, examine the details deal, which is far from guaranteed at this point. During that period, the president would not be able to and give this critically important process time to play “A lot of thorny issues will have to be resolved in the lift or suspend any Iran sanctions. out.” next three months, chief among them the exact Corker said Thursday that the Senate Foreign Relations “We must always remain vigilant about preventing roadmap for lifting the sanctions, language that goes Committee would take up the bill on Apr. 14, when Iran from getting a nuclear weapon but there is no into the U.N. Security Council resolution, measures for lawmakers return from a spring recess. question that a diplomatic solution is vastly preferable resolving the PMD [possible military dimensions] issues, “If a final agreement is reached, the American people, to the alternatives,” he said in a statementThursday. and the mechanism for determining violations,” Ali through their elected representatives, must have the Obama has his work cut out for him, however, in the Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s senior Iran opportunity to weigh in to ensure the deal truly can next two weeks as pro- and anti-deal groups press analyst, told IPS. eliminate the threat of Iran’s nuclear program and hold Congress to take up their positions. “Negotiations will not get easier in the next three the regime accountable,” he said in a statement. “[W]e have concerns that the new framework months; in fact, they will get harder as the parties But administration officials reminded reporters announced today by the P5+1 could result in a final struggle to resolve the remaining thorny issues and yesterday that the president would oppose any bill that agreement that will leave Iran as a threshold nuclear defend the agreement,” said Vaez, who was in Laus- it considered harmful to the prospects of a final deal. state,” said the American Israel Public Affairs Commit- anne when the agreement was announced. “The president has made clear he would veto new tee (AIPAC), a leading Israel lobby group, in a state- “Success is not guaranteed, but this breakthrough has sanctions legislation during the negotiation, and he ment. further increased the cost of breakdown,” he added. made clear he would veto the existing Corker legislation The Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), a (IPS | 3 April 2015) during negotiations,” said a senior administration well-known hawkish think tank in D.C, also reiterated its Photo: President Barack Obama addresses a joint official yesterday during a press call. stance against any deal that allows Iran to maintain its session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, “What would not be constructive is legislative action nuclear infrastructure. D.C., on Sep. 9, 2009. Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

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